STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR ETHICS AND
INTEGRITY, OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT UGANDA
AT THE 4TH IAACA ANNUAL SEMINAR
DALIAN, CHINA
25TH TO 28TH JUNE, 2012
Introduction
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The government is committed to proving the
highest quality of leadership in the fight against
corruption. We believe that the quality of
governance system is determined by the quality
of leadership as well as commitment of the
leaders.
Thus the government has put in place measures to
enhance the leadership commitment so as to crate an
environment in which the public believes and trust in
government commitment to eradicate corruption
through clear and consistent policies, decision and
actions.
DEI
The Directorate for Ethics and Integrity (DEI) was established in
1998 as a Government Agency under the Office of the President
and is headed by a Cabinet Minister.
– It is mandated to empower the citizens to uphold and cherish
moral values and principles.
– It is responsible for the development of anti corruption Policy,
– the coordination of the Anti corruption Government agencies in
their efforts to fight corruption,
– creation of awareness on ethics and integrity in public office,
enhancing ethical standards among the public and
– to build coalitions with Civil Society Organisations and other
Government anti corruption agencies.
Zero tolerance to corruption
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The Zero Tolerance to corruption is the policy
framework that spells out Government approach to tackle
corruption and details priority actions and targets. This is
the implementation of the expression of the NRM 2006
election manifesto where it declared, “NRM shall
implement a zero-tolerance policy on corruption” In
this context, zero tolerance has been defined to mean the
following:
“Taking prompt and decisive action to respond to all
incidences of corruption actively promoting ethical
conduct; effectively implementing measures to prevent
occurrences of corruption in society; and widely
disseminating the results of the actions taken”
Inter Agency Forum
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Directorate of Ethics & Integrity
Inspectorate of Government
Directorate of Public Prosecutions
Office of the Auditor General
Ministry of Internal Affairs
Inspectorate of Courts
Local Government Finance Commission
Uganda Revenue Authority
Criminal Investigations Directorate
Inter Agency Forum
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Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Assets
Authority
Public Service Commission
Ministry of Public Service
Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic
Development
Ministry of Public Service
Ministry of Local Government
Education Service Commission
Health Service Commission
Judicial Services Commission
Asset Recovery
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The Directorate is in the process of initiating the
proceeds of corruption Law which will simplify the
prosecution of cases relating to asset recovery
and strengthen the prosecution of corruption
cases.
Purpose of the Asset Recovery Law
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The Law is intended to provide an effective tool
to make corruption a very risky business even
where the legislative framework has been unable
to recover proceeds of corruption.
The Law will prescribe the procedure to enable
the country to recover assets which are proceeds
or instrumentalities of corruption, where a person
has been convicted of an offence or where there
has been no prosecution but it can be proved on
a balance of probabilities that property
represents proceed of a corrupt activity.
Purpose of the Asset Recovery Law
The Law will enable compensation of
victims of corruption and recovery of
resources lost to corruption,
maladministration and misconduct.
 The law will put in place the Assets
Recovery processes and the appropriate
management of seized proceeds and
instrumentalities of corruption as well as
the possibilities of their confiscation.
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Challenges
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The effectiveness of asset recovery provisions or
confiscation orders is largely diminished by the
likelihood that once a suspect or defendant is
made aware of the investigation, the assets will
quickly disappear.
Indeed, we have no doubt that a large
percentage of the proceeds of crime in Uganda is
already being efficiently laundered. There is no
specific law in place giving power to prosecution
authorities to immobilise property prior to and
pending trial.
This gap will be addressed by the Proceeds of
Corruption Legislation.
Challenges
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Lack of specific law on asset forfeiture, the
existing laws are not comprehensive enough.
Most of our laws are conviction based and the
investigators tend to focus their efforts more on
conviction than asset recovery.
The enforcement of the Leadership code has been
rendered inadequate since some of its provisions
were challenged in court.
The Leadership Code limits the declaration of
assets to selected leaders while in actual sense
most corrupt practices are by lower cadres.
Challenges
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This renders it difficult to prove progress of asset
accumulation like in cases of illicit enrichment.
As a country we lack a consolidated national
identification system, this has made it possible
for culprits to hide property since their identity
cannot be easily traced form a national databank.
Conclusion
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The establishment of the anti corruption court is
in line with UNCAC and it has positively impacted
on the enforcement of the anti corruption
legislation and other policy framework against
corruption. Corruption however is a huge
problem that requires a holistic approach to deal
with. A number of different measures, both legal
and non-legal therefore need to be emphasized.
Thank you