Over 4000 leaders have not declared their wealth
The Inspectorate of Government is investigating 4,222 leaders for possible prosecution and sanctioning before the leadership code tribunal. The leaders allegedly defied provisions of the leadership code Act which require public officers to declare their income, assets and liabilities to the Inspectorate of Government.
According to the Deputy Inspector General of Government Mariam Wangadya, although the compliance deadline of March 31 was extended to April 23, 2021, thousands of leaders still failed to declare their wealth as required.
Wangadya says that of the 25,000 leaders that were expected to declare their wealth, only 20,778 (83.11 per cent) were able to do so. The most compliant institutions in the 2021 declaration include the Presidency, the Vice Presidency, the Amnesty Commission, the National Citizenship and Immigration Control Board, The National Children Authority, the Deposit Protection Fund of Uganda, the Inspectorate of Government, the Leadership Code Tribunal and New Vision.
The rest will now be expected to face the tribunal, where those found with excess or undeclared wealth will be asked to forfeit it to the government. At 0 per cent compliance, the entities that defied the law include Uganda Patriotic Movement, the Farmers Party of Uganda, Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), National Youth Revolutionary Organization, THE Activist Party and People’s United Movement. The others are the Justice Forum (JEEMA) and the Ecological Party of Uganda(EPU). The others are Uganda College of Commerce, Uganda Heart Institute, Mandela National Stadium and the National Library of Uganda.
According to Wangadya, the inspectorate is expecting a new category of 400,000 public officers that will be required to submit their wealth through the new online system within a period of three months from April 23, 2021, to July 23, 2021. The new category includes all people employed by the government, regardless of their salary scale.
Ethics and integrity Minister Rev.Fr. Simon Lokodo, the government has come to realize that officers in public offices are amassing excessive wealth, the reason they found it important to include all the categories of public servants that earn from the consolidated fund to declare their wealth to the IG. He adds that the Inspectorate of government offices will be mandated to carry out sensitization across the country for the public officers to know what they are required to do under the leadership code Act.
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