Crusaders welcome corruption tribunal

A new strong tool for fighting corruption may be underway. Public access to use it should be ensured

Civil society anti corruption activists and government anti graft institutions have welcomed and expressed optimism about the proposal to put in place a special court charged with handling corruption cases.

The co-ordinator of Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda, ACCU, Geoffrey Rwakabale however warned that if a corruption tribunal comes into realisation, it should not be government only to forward cases and then prosecute like in the Army Court Martial.

The White Paper recommends that the constitution should be amended to by law establish a special court or tribunal to deal with matters of corruption. The document also suggests another court to specifically handle Leadership Code cases.

Allen Ruhangataremwa Barugahare, senior programme officer of Uganda Debt Network, says that this tribunal should also be placed directly under the jurisdiction of office of the Inspector General of Government, IGG. The IGG is constitutionally mandated to carry out investigations on graft and then issue warrants of search and arrest on the culprits.

Martin Okumu the Principle Officer in charge of information and the media in the office of the IGG said that the idea of a special court to handle corruption cases is a healthy one which would go a long way in objectively bringing corrupt officers to book.

However IGG office is not putting its expectation too high on this matter since the proposal is yet to be debated and passed by parliament.

Last year the IGG came under attack from presidential advisors on political affairs Maj. Rolland Kakooza Mutale and his legal affairs counterpart Fox Odoi. The dispute led to the nullification of punitive sections 19(1), 20(1) and 35 of the Leadership Code Act 2002. Thereby the Leadership Code Act cannot punish presidential appointments and high profile senior servants for refusing to declare wealth or engaging in matters that conflict with interests of their offices.

Geoffrey Rwakabale of ACCU stresses the need for public access to the possible future court. Civil society organisations and ordinary people should have the mandate to sue corrupt leaders.

"The risk of leaving it with government only is that the state may suddenly choose to drop charges if it feels it is making political capital out of it, or if it feels that prosecuting the official is likely to put its credibility on the line," he says.

Anti corruption activists believe that a special court on corruption would reduce corruption at local government level to eventually streamline the tendering processes which are largely to blame for the numerous incidences of shoddy work being delivered.