Last week the Auditor general in the Ugandan government released the audit for the past financial year 2007/2008 before parliament. Its so full of huge sums of money that has mysteriously disappeared, stolen, unaccounted for or requisitioned to purchase substandard items. Ugandans are probably lucky to know about all the “deals gone wrong” in this report unlike most of fellow African countries were such a report would never be released to Parliament let alone the public.
The report notes mis-management of public funds and offices right from the President’s own home, state house through to the different ministries of finance, health, defense, prisons and further to include Uganda’s missions abroad. If these were to be ranked as to what ministry took top position at being the most corrupt, it would probably be the ministry of works responsible for the roads network. Its so corrupt that it failed to get mentioned in this report, probably, they were too scared to write the figures involved.
What makes the citizen to start developing a cold heart towards the so called “dignitaries” in this country is especially the in-human hearts eating way the little medical care towards the suffering Ugandans. From Anti-Retro viral (ARVs) drugs arriving few in number, expired and late to save lives to failure by the National Medical Stores (NMS) distributing the badly needed drugs in their stock in time all over the country. Worse is, NMS seeking for billions of shillings to destroy the now expired drugs in their stores after spending billions to bring into the country the same drugs. The dignitaries move around with bulging stomachs and look at the rest of the poor with contempt.
Now the book of shame, as the report calls it, is out, the parliamentarians who represent the people, must put in place a system of checks and balances to ensure that such vices do not happen again the next financial year, at least not as bad as what we currently witnessing. If this is not so, many citizens will definitely get fed up of whatever is happening and either flee their beloved country or stay and fight till better days arrive.
