Museveni's new war on graftEMMANUEL MULONDOMonitor, May 17 - 23, 2006As time ticked towards President Yoweri Museveni swearing in for his third constitutional term in office on May 12th, the fight against corruption became his catchword.
Yet he agrees the scourge has existed as long as the NRM and beyond.
Questions abound as to why all of a sudden the President has decided that he must personally and with vigour "attack the monster" which everybody knows and believes has existed all along.
The President sounded more spot on when he acknowledged for the first time that the cancer was deep, deep in his ruling NRM party.
"Finally, there's the issue of corruption - soliciting bribes from businessmen both local and foreign or stealing government money. It has been bad enough to cope with corrupt public servants we inherited. We have been fighting them step by step. We captured Uganda Revenue Authority and we are targeting the police Force. We have been weeding out re-infestation within the army," Museveni said, as he met NRM members of the Eighth Parliament at Munyonyo on May 8th.
"I never believed that an NRM leader could ask for or accept a bribe from anybody or could participate in stealing government money. I knew that was the problem of public servants. I have however finally got evidence to show that some of the leaders could be in this contemptible practice. .... We shall act decisively and without mercy against such a cancer. Otherwise, our country will be doomed," Museveni roared.( no need to fall out of you chair because you laugh too hard!)
Earlier on as Museveni presided over Labour Day celebrations at Kololo on May 1, he said, "I didn't believe there was corruption in the NRM. I didn't believe there was corruption going on deliberately in the NRM, that even in the Movement, the people who went to the bush could take bribes. Now I have started receiving news that in the NRM there are people who can do 'ekivve' ( the abominable) and take a bribe."
"I can assure you that as chairman of the Movement and Head of State with the 'kisanja' (third term), which you gave me, I will not tolerate corruption in the Movement. At least it can be in public service, in the police but not the Movement which is the core". The same was repeated as he swore in on May 12th.
The President's declarations came at the time when several prominent NRM officials, including ministers, have been implicated in the alleged mismanagement of the Global Fund meant to Fight HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
In the past, the President has blamed the failure to route corruption on to the police and the judiciary. The police, he held, bungled up cases while the judiciary allegedly became equally corrupt.
But an NRM insider says in confidence, "It is true we have been lacking the resolve to fight corruption. I don't think sacking somebody, who is a political appointee, needs the courts or the police."
He adds, "But the public has been equally to blame. You people glorify corruption. When somebody is appointed and he doesn't amass wealth, you say 'that one is stupid.' When one steals, you say 'omusajja akoze ssente (the man has made money)'. You even vote him again if he is in elective politics."
The source said the public, for example, made President Museveni hostage when Parliament censured Muhwezi and Kuteesa and they were voted again as MPs. "What do you want the man (Museveni) to do. The people have voted Muhwezi again. What reasons can Museveni give for alienating a bush war comrade?"
But gone are the good times. The hard times are with us. For some months, the power crisis in the country is biting hard and the impact on the economy has been enormous. Accordingly, insiders say, revenue collections are dwindling.
If government is to implement the programmes as contained in the President's manifesto, the available funds have to be used prudently.
For instance, already Universal Primary Education has been taking a lion's share of the national budget. Enter now the Universal Secondary Education.
Already before the close of the financial year, government was requesting Parliament for supplementary expenditure, a huge portion of which is to go to education. The requests were made before the House last week.
Yet there are many other programmes that need funding. There is bonna baggawale (poverty eradication) programme to address the abject poverty witnessed by the President during the campaigns.
It is a fact that some of the gaps in the past programmes have been largely due to stealing of public money. For example, the supply of substandard construction materials and books and the disappearance of salaries of teachers under UPE are litany.
The President says the clean up will start in the Immigration department. The problems within the department have been longstanding and a menace to both locals and foreigners. Officials therein have failed to account for proceeds from passport sales and work permits.
It is a known fact that if you want a fast service, one has to part with a handsome sum to an official.
But at a political level, there's a general consensus that government was partly to blame. The department has been largely under funded, under staffed and under resourced, with only two vehicles to supervise the entire country. The other problem has been politics.
As Parliament passed the law to turn it into a directorate, MPs cautioned against appointing new staff along political lines. The conclusion is that, as the President sorts out the corruption in Immigration, it will be a futile exercise if the above problems are not addressed.
The President's image has been tainted either directly or indirectly through what the public view as acquiescence on corruption.
When the President's own brother, General Salim Saleh's hand was cited in the purchase of junk helicopters in the army, the President quickly acknowledged that Saleh had reported himself and he pardoned him and ordered that he commits the booty to "fighting war in the north".
To clean his image, the President, after a commission of inquiry recommended so, directed the prosecution of those named.
But Emmanuel Kato and Saleh, the principle suspects were acquitted when the former argued that what he gave was a commission for "being linked". The trial and its timing served only one purpose, to show that the President was not keeping a blind eye to the transgression by his brother.
The general perception out there is that actually the President condones corruption. So as he starts his new term in office, Museveni will be seeking to clean up own image.
The development becomes more expedient as the country gears up for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) late next year. That will be in the short run. In the long run, he will have to polish the image of his ruling party or else NRM popularity gets eroded to result in a loss at the next poll. This is especially so as the country goes multiparty, for the first time in twenty years.
Museveni had in the past enjoyed an unchallenged monolithic rule.
So to keep NRM on top in terms of image, we shall expect some sackings, may be not those at a surprisingly high level but symbolic enough to show that he is doing something to address the problem.
The government will seek to publicise these highly, first to send signals to the corrupt that the era is over but also to show that there's no more condoning of the vice.
The Ogoola Global Fund commission will be highly cited. So will be earlier commissions of inquiry like Julia Ssebutinde (the junk army choppers, the police and URA) and that of David Potter (DR Congo plunder).
To this end, some of the personalities mentioned in the Ogoola report may not see themselves in the new cabinet. At least not in the immediate first and second years. It is something very possible however powerful one may be in a system.
As the economy groans under the effects of power shortages, it is important that external sources of revenue are not given a shock. To this, President Museveni will have to comply to the demand by the European Union, a big group of donors, that those mentioned in the Ogoola inquiry refund what they looted and better, be prosecuted.
Musevenis critics are saying he will be hesitant to sack bush war comrades, especially some of who still hold popular mandate by holding constituencies. Should this be the case, Musevenis attempts to cleanse the image of his administration will be an exercise in futility.
But Nobert Mao, former Gulu Municipality MP who happens to be an NRM critic said, The routing of corruption from Uganda today cannot be successful without routing Museveni himself. Corruption thrives around him. He does it specifically by sanctioning those dubious deals. He does not act on reports of inquiry. He has made State House a place for awarding contracts, Mao said.
The President has at times acted in a bigger than thou style in the recent past, when the public just got to hear Shimoni TTC and Demonstration School have been awarded to a Sudanese investor to construct a five-star hotel, Dairy Corporation sold at US $1, and so on.
So, the remark by Mao is the thinking of many out there, something that only helps harden the feeling that the President is gratifying himself through some of these deals.
Untrue it may be, but the mere fact that the pronouncements are done outside the law leaves a lot of room for speculation about whether the President is not acting corruptly.
So as he moves to clean his image by cracking down on the corrupt, he may do more by also ensuring that he works within the law on issues investment.
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