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      Britain and Ireland Suspend Aid to Uganda after Millions Go Missing

   by Douglas Mpuga

   Britain has joined Ireland in suspending aid to Uganda's office of the
   prime minister.  The move comes after a draft report by Ugandan's
   auditor- general found that EUR12 million in aid had been transferred
   to unauthorized accounts in the office of the Ugandan prime minister.
   The money was meant to have been spent on helping the needy, and to
   help pay for a `peace recovery and development program' in northern
   Uganda after decades of conflict and devastation.
   The Ugandan government has pledged prosecutions. Two senior officials
   have been charged, while 17 others have been suspended as the
   investigation continues.
   "This report does not surprise anybody," said Dr. Fred Golooba Mutebi,
   a political analyst and a visiting fellow at the University of
   Manchester in the United Kingdom. The only shock, he added, "is the
   amounts of money stolen are quite colossal."
   He exonerated Uganda's Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi, saying he has
   just been appointed to the office and that the theft has been going on
   for a long time. "The only way you can hold him responsible is that he
   has been Secretary General for the ruling party for a long time. So you
   can hold the ruling party responsible, in which case he is culpable."
   Mr. Mbabazi has reportedly publicly apologized to Ireland, saying no
   money was ever paid to him, and that he never handles the aid money.
   He said that although the missing money was discovered in private bank
   accounts, not all of it was `misappropriated,' but `merely irregularly
   managed,' according to local media reports.
   "I think the government is half-hearted about fighting corruption,''
   said Mutebi. He said the government is not unable to wage such a fight,
   but the structure of politics in the country is such that there are
   instances where people who should be charged with corruption are senior
   officials of the government, and it is in the government's interest not
   to prosecute them.
   He noted that if you can't pursue those who are politically important,
   it becomes difficult to pursue ordinary members of the public, because
   that would be a blatant double standard.
   The government, he said, is also constrained by the fact that some of
   its most senior officials are as corrupt as the people who stole money
   from the prime minister's office.
   Mutebi described the level of impunity in the country. "Impunity in
   Uganda is not only in connection with corruption, but in connection
   with various other misdeeds by government officials, and people
   connected to the ruling party."
   Regarding the theft of donor funds, Mutebi said the donors can do
   something about it. "They [donors] could decide to withhold general
   budget support and go for project funding - where they have a much
   closer watch over the money."
   "But as long as they [donors] put the money in the government's kitty,
   it is really beyond them to control what the government does with it."
   The donors, he explained, could withhold the aid. Donors could claim
   that if they do that it could be punitive to poor people, but there is
   no empirical evidence for that.
   "If large amounts of donor money are being stolen, in what sense are
   they going toward funding things that are important to poor people?" he
   wondered.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/donors-suspend-aid-to-uganda-over-cor
   ruption/1536840.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/donors-suspend-aid-to-uganda-over-corruption/1536840.html