Over the years, the government has been talking about civil servants who overtime accumulate wealth that's beyond their salaries and allowances, hence proposing to do audits on how these get to accumulate such wealth in a short period of time.
The new Inspector General of Government (IGG) Betty Kamya recently came out to ask for an increase in her budget, to be able to implement the lifestyle audit as a move to kick corruption out of government workspaces.
Kamya however yesterday was asked by the parliamentary committe to explain how this will be successful if she has failed to curb the 'obvious' corruption in government offices. Bukooli North MP, Bakka Mugabi who was part of the committe questioned how the IGG intends to successfully carryout this lifestyle audit yet 'openly corrupt' people have not been brought to book.
"Ugandans just steal openly, youjust go to a project and see that this road is poor. So who're the engineers? You go for those ones. What's the justification for the lifestyle audit? How're you going to manage it when you have failed in people who're openly corrupt?" He asked.
In her response, the IGG stated that many public service emloyees have accumulated wealth way beyond their salaries and that these qualify to be audited. "There may who have aquired illicit wealth. You know that somebody was a commissioner, earning 1.5m every month but their lifestyle is far beyond that. I think this should be under public scrutiny for them to explain. And that's how lifestyle audit works and it has worked."
Does the IGG's submission sound convincing? Is this one of her stratedies to 'kick corruption out of the country in six years as she promised after her appointment? Should the corrupt officials be scared or it's just another media appearance by the lady herself?
