STEVEN ARIONG: It’s Better to Trust Witch Doctors Than the IGG in the Fight Against Corruption

Any Christian reading this article will agree with me that there is a group of people who dodge paying offerings, pretending to be busy, and those are the choir members who are singing. That is how the IGG is behaving.

In fact, in my own opinion, it’s better to trust community witch doctors to deal with corrupt officials than to report corruption to IGG officials.

The advantage of a witch doctor is that he tells you openly the amount of money he wants so that he can discipline the thief, while the IGG hides the money demanded from a person who reports corruption but goes and agrees with the suspected thief.

While a witch doctor may somehow help by sending swarms of bees to attack the corrupt, on the side of the IGG, it is the corrupt person who caters for the transport and meals of the IGG officer assigned to investigate him.

In fact, dealing with the IGG in the fight against corruption is like trusting an elderly person to kick a ball for a penalty.

I have seen both the Inspector General of Government and her deputy trying to fault the method Hon. Balaam is using to get rid of corruption in the country. They are fighting for Balaam because most of them have been building flats using stolen money from local governments.

As a concerned Ugandan, stop interfering with Hon. Balaam’s work. You have failed in the fight against corruption, so please sit and wait for your allowances.

Visit UHRC Sponsored I have realised that there is no difference between the current leaders of the IGG and the previous leadership of the IGG headed by Mama Betty Kamya.

Hon. Kamya was let down by her own field team, who could reveal sensitive information to the people they were investigating. In most cases, they were even given money to delay the arrest or interdiction of those accused of corruption.

Why do I say this? When you look at the IGG, it is supposed to be an independent constitutional office that leads the fight against corruption, enforces ethical leadership and promotes administrative justice.

Its role is to investigate, arrest or prosecute individuals or public officials linked to embezzlement, abuse of office and graft. However, in my own opinion, I have realised that the IGG seems to have bent these rules without knowing that it is getting compromised.

Look at what is happening in the Ministry of Works. The IGG knows very well the real person who should be held answerable for the mess in the Ministry of Works, but either because the officer has become a source of income for some IGG staff, nothing is being done.

Honestly speaking, the IGG is eating through the confusion in the Ministry of Works. It should be noted that the IGG conducted two investigations related to alleged corruption in the Ministry of Works, but no report has been produced. Now, again, they are conducting what they call a forensic audit. Is this not a hidden move to keep people who should already be culprits in office?

In my own opinion, and I am entitled to it, I think the entire IGG investigation is being directed by people who should have been ordered to vacate their offices to pave the way for investigations.

Would I be right to say that the interdictions made in the Ministry of Works were part of a syndicate, with the aim of getting money from the Ministry of Works through Isaac Wani?

There is no way you can recommend the interdiction and dismissal of officials who are not decision-makers while leaving out the people responsible for designing, preparing bidding documents and negotiating the costs of road works.

Anyone would believe that if it were a serious investigation, Mr. Wani would not still be in that office, yet he is the real cause of corruption in the Ministry of Works.

Let us look at the loopholes surrounding the Busega–Mpigi Expressway. There is no way you can transfer that mess to junior engineers while leaving Mr. Isaac Wani out of it.

Why should Mr. Wani, Commissioner for National Roads in the Ministry of Works, not have been interdicted some time back? Much as he claims to be a whistle-blower, he is not. He was the Director of Road Design at UNRA at the time, and he was the chairperson of the Contracts Committee that approved the Busega–Mpigi Expressway contract, even when he knew that its design was not yet in place.

He was the one who first approved the increase of Shs 1.8 trillion for the project. This compelled the Ministry of Works at the time to set up a separate committee to guide Mr. Wani. This committee did a wonderful job by negotiating the cost of the project downwards to Shs 1.108 trillion.

Instead of respecting the negotiations conducted by the Ministry of Works, Mr. Wani, either out of greed or for other reasons, went and conducted his own independent business research and added Shs 300 billion, which increased the cost of the project to Shs 1.4 trillion, without the consent of the minister, whose role is to communicate the position of the government.

Really, is this not enough evidence for the IGG to act and ask Mr. Wani to step aside, unless it is true that they are eating together with Wani?

Let us look at an advert that was published for the position of Commissioner for National Roads.

Ministry/Department: Ministry of Works and Transport

Terms of Employment: Only staff of the former Uganda National Roads Authority should apply.

Maximum Age: Not specified in the advert provided.

Applicants should be Ugandans holding an Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering, or any other relevant degree in the field of Civil Engineering, plus a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Bridge Engineering, Highway Engineering or any other Civil Engineering field from a recognised university or institution.

Applicants must have a Postgraduate Diploma in a management field from a recognised university or institution. Applicants must also be registered with the Engineers Registration Board (ERB).

Applicants should have a minimum of twelve (12) years of relevant working experience, three (3) of which should have been served at the level of Assistant Commissioner of Civil Engineering in government or at an equivalent level of experience in a reputable organisation.

The incumbent will be responsible to the Permanent Secretary for performing the following duties:

Now, my question to the IGG is: Who is currently occupying that position in the Ministry of Works, and why have you not taken an interest in interrogating this person, bearing in mind that he is responsible for the delays or stalled completion of roads?

Are you not also showing Ugandans that you are corrupt by allowing such a person to continue discharging his duties when he should have stepped aside to pave the way for investigations?

With all those job responsibilities, my question is whether the IGG investigations are targeting Mrs. Allen Kagina and her team, or whether the IGG is also trying to play a hide-and-seek game with its investigations to protect people who should have been interdicted long ago.

Are you also dining with the corrupt through your targeted investigations? Ugandans need that report. Where is it? You conducted two separate investigations. Where are the reports?

This is something very serious that I would like to appeal to our President to look into. I would also like to bring to the attention of our “bad man,” General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, that the IGG investigations seem to be targeting a small group of innocent people while leaving out the larger team that should be held answerable for this corruption.

My sources are even telling me that a letter was sent from State House directing Wani to vacate the office. Unfortunately, Mr. Fred Byamukama, the Minister of Works, together with the current Acting Permanent Secretary, are hiding the letter. However, we shall bring out those details in the next article.

I am not witch-hunting anyone, but the truth must be established so that investigations and punishment are directed at the real culprits.

Mr. President, what is happening in the Ministry of Works is similar to what happened to Jesus Christ when they took him with two thieves. Some people preferred Jesus to be killed even though he was doing the right things: resurrecting the dead, making the lame walk and making the blind see. But he was killed, and that is what has happened to the dismissed engineers.

They were not responsible for designing the road, procuring the contractor or negotiating the cost, yet they have been accused of these things while the officials responsible for all this are being bypassed by the IGG for unknown reasons. Something must be fishy here.

The writer is a senior veteran journalist.

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