Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, has declared her wealth to the Inspectorate of Government as required by law and tasked the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Beti Kamya to thoroughly verify declared assets by public servants.
Wealth declaration is an accountability mechanism geared towards enhancing good governance and the fight against corruption. Government officials have until March 31, 2023, to declare their wealth or face repercussions.
Among said the IGG should not be swayed by surface declarations made by public officials, noting there should be deeper investigations to attach the right wealth to an individual.
She also implored all legislators and staff to follow suit considering that the 11th Parliament, which she now leads, is committed to pursuing transparency.
She also advised the IGG to keenly heed the persistent calls from the public to tackle corruption.
The IGG is targeting over 34,000 government officials who must declare their wealth as per the law.
While addressing the media ahead of the International Anti-Corruption Day last year, Kamya admitted that eradicating corruption cannot happen in one day. She called for continued and active involvement of the public in the fight against the vice.
She recently met with district accounting officers and urged them to fight corruption in all it forms at the district level.
According to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index for 2021, Uganda scored 27 out of 100, which is below the Sub-Saharan average of 33 points, and below the global average of 43 points.
The study that used information from 13 global sources, targeted a total of 189 countries 49 of them in Africa.
