The commission of inquiry into land matters has heard that there is massive corruption at every stage of lands survey in Uganda.
According to local news agency, surveyors told the Justice Bamugemereire-led commission that they are often forced to pay bribes in order to have their papers cleared for land titles.
Richard Masereje, the president of the Institute of Surveyors of Uganda told the Commission today that the cost of surveying would be much lower if corruption at the District and National Surveys departments was eliminated.
Similarly, Dr Ronald Sengendo, a member of the Institute of Surveyors of Uganda executive told the commission that it is almost impossible for any surveyor to process a land title right from the district staff surveyor’s office.
He said that most surveyors are forced to pay the bribes or wait for a very long time before the job is done adding that in some instances the surveyors’ files are hidden by secretaries or the district staff surveyors until when they are bribed.
The Commission Chairperson, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire had earlier asked Sengendo about what drives the surveyors to pay the bribes.
Sengendo said surveyors were also facing a lot of problems with the National Land Information System (LIS). The system is a multi-million dollar project funded by the World Bank to computerize Uganda’s Land Registry. It has been running since 2013.
Dr Sengendo told the commission that most times they have found that the measurements that surveyors make on the ground don’t tally with those on the lands registry.
