The Inspector General of Government (IGG) has identified the lack of computer skills among local government leaders and public service officers as one of the challenges experienced during the declaration of wealth to the Inspectorate of Government.
The recently concluded declaration in March revealed that up to 6,222 leaders and public officers failed to declare their wealth as required by law. Section 4 of the Leadership Code Act requires leaders and public officials to declare their income, assets, and liabilities within three months after assuming office and not later than six months since the previous declaration before exiting the office.
The routine declaration is required every two years in March. The enforcement of this legislation is invested in the IGG. The IGG, Beti Olive Kamya announced the outcomes of the March 2023 declarations and explained that many officers could not declare their wealth because they lacked computer skills. Kamya stated that “this problem was most common among local government leaders and public servants and this is the major reason among others why local governments performed poorly in the recently concluded declarations.”
She called on the Ministry of ICT to come up with immediate interventions to train these personnel, because the IG is not turning back to physical declarations based on the advantages of the digital system.
Those who failed to declare their wealth are going to be dealt with according to the law and fairly tried and judged. According to the IGG, those who failed to declare their wealth are going to be dealt with according to the law and fairly tried and judged. The outcomes of the March 2023 declarations show that up to 25,420 leaders and officials out of the registered 31,642 declared their wealth, representing 80.3 percent of the expected number.
The report highlighted other challenges, including the absence of an updated database of leaders in the country, which delays the online declaration process registration. The delaying tendency of leaders who end up declaring at the last minute was also a challenge that causes system overloads and congestion of the helpline that disrupts the entire process.
The districts of Busia, Koboko, Moyo, Zombo, Namisindwa, Buliisa, and Mubende, as well as Kamuli municipality, declared below average. Other institutions that failed were the Joint Clinical Research Center, Kiruddu Hospital, Hoima Regional Referral Hospital, and the bloc of Resident District Commissioners whose declaration was at 42 percent.
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