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Letter to the Editor, Irish Times, 16th August 2006
Madam, -
Uganda is eaten up by high levels of corruption that are weakening
its political foundations, the US ambassador to the country, Steven
Browning, said this month.
He warned that the country's political foundations are weakened
when senior government officials and powerful businessmen flout
the law in seeking personal enrichment.
He pointed out that commissions of inquiry that generate voluminous
findings of abuse of office are not enough in themselves. "If
Uganda is going to win its fight against corruption, then prosecutors
must act on these findings and the judiciary must respond,"
he said.
Uganda is a notoriously corrupt country:
The UK recently cut £20 million in aid due to worries about
governance.
In the elections earlier this year, President Museveni changed the
constitution to enable him seek re-election for a third spell in
office, bribing MPs to vote in favour of the move.
A recent probe into allegations of corruption in the Global Fund
on Aids, tuberculosis and malaria unearthed a "pile of filth"
and massive levels of corruption in the dispersal of aid.
The International Court of Justice has ordered Uganda to pay the
Democratic Republic of Congo compensation - which could amount to
$10 billion - for looting during the 1998-2003 war.
An estimated 1.3 million women and children are living in camps
in northern Uganda because of a ghastly civil war that has been
running for 20 years, causing the deaths of up to 1,000 people a
week. Respected analysts argue that it suits Museveni to have northern
Uganda disabled politically as his power base is in the south, and
the war justifies his defence budget allocation of over 20 per cent.
Yet the Irish Government sees fit to channel €30 million through
Ugandan government structures, despite a litany of evidence that
endemic corruption is widespread.
- Yours, etc,
JOHN O'SHEA
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