Auditor General lists weak government departments

Civil society reacts to auditor general’s report

Ugandans need to politically punish people they vote into power and they fail to deliver to them the required services.

That is the view of Sebastiano Rwengabo, a research fellow at The Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) while commenting on weaknesses in service delivery as noted in the AG report.

Rwengabo told The Independent that every financial year the AG notes irregularities in all sectors but the government has failed to fix them.

“Uganda has reached a point where the political will to do things is zero,” he said, “but the technical will is there,” he added.

For higher offices, like the Presidency, he said that it takes the will of the President himself and those around him to do things differently and in the right way.

“If political leaders don’t have that we are in trouble,” he said.

Rwengabo said that there is need to enforce the standards and legal framework for government services to yield results.

He said that the government needs to identify hardworking civil servants and place them in key struggling agencies so they can revamp them and “signal to others that things can work.”

He was particularly concerned about land, and said that Civil Society needs to come out strongly and advocate for fair laws and policies on land.

Jane Nalunga, the country director for Southern and Eastern African Trade, Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), was concerned about the lack of policy for tax incentives. She told The Independent that the government needs to penalise investors who breach contracts they sign with government at the time of getting an incentive. She said carefully thought about incentives – tax, land, credit and more – have capacity to attract foreign direct investment and boost economic growth.