Government, through the office of the Inspectorate of the Government, has partnered with Civil Society Organizations aiming at fighting corruption.
This was through signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with nine Civil Society Organisations who operate in refugee host communities.
The IG has entered a Memorandum of Understanding with the nine groups, including Community Development Network, Karambi Action for Life Improvement, Kitgum NGO Forum, Koboko Civil Society Network and Moyo NGO Forum.
Other CSOs are Rwenzori Anti-Corruption Coalition, Recreation for Development and Peace, Western Ankole Civil Society Forum and West Nile Regional Civil Society.
Annet Atwine, the Director Project Risk, Monitoring and Control at the IG says the CSOs will be charged with training of community monitoring groups in matters to do with corruption detection and reporting, but also act as a rapid response team in case of an incident.
However, the CSOs themselves are warned against practicing corruption, whether in internal operations or when dealing with refugees and other persons but to be professionals and maintain integrity.
According to the deputy IGG, Patricia Achan Okiria, they have identified gaps in projects being implemented in refugee host districts especially under the Development Response to Displacement Impact Project (DRDIP).
Achan is optimistic that with this partnership, corruption tendencies in these projects will be curbed since CSOs are always on ground.
Speaking to the media after signing the memorandum of understanding with CSO’s in Mbarara City, Achan revealed that fighting corruption should be everyone’s duty as the IGG office may not reach everywhere.
She also revealed that as IGG office they are overwhelmed by the number of cases they receive explaining that as of now they are investigating at least 5,000 cases.
She says this case backlog is not their wanting but said that they are sometimes curtailed by meager financial resources and staffing gaps.
