Uganda corruption campaign: CEN 11.21.08 p 6.

A coalition of church and civic groups in Uganda has launched a “Name and Shame” campaign to focus public awareness on corruption in the East African nation. The Anti-Corruption Coalition-Uganda (ACCU) will maintain a public record of civil servants and businessmen caught in corrupt practices.

Ugandan clergy will also be a focus of the anti-graft campaign the Rt. Rev. Zac Niringiye, the Assistant Bishop of Kamapala said at the launch of the programme last month. “Even religious institutions are not corruption-free,” he said, adding that he hoped “you will name and shame some bishops,” caught abusing the public’s trust.

The ACCU, a coalition of 70 civic organizations that include the Boys and Girls Brigade, Oxfam, Worldvision, as well as business associations and trade unions, stated the concept behind the “Name and Shame” book was to identify “public officials and institutions that have constantly lowered their integrity in the public’s court of opinion.”

The standard set for inclusion in the roll of corruption, the ACCU said was “immorality, unethical [behavior], causing loss to the public, conflict of interest, influence peddling, knowingly associating in a corrupt manner, aiding and abetting corruption, and getting involved in corrupt activities.”

Uganda fell 15 spots on Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perception Report from its 2007 ranking, placing 126 out of 180 on the world corruption index. Neighboring Tanzania and Rwanda tied at 102, while Kenya ranked 150. Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand tied for first while Somalia came last.

Bishop Niringiye said corruption had permeated all levels of Ugandan life, such that government decisions are “made quickly only when there are interested parties and corruption is the driver of this decision-making.”

Corruption was Uganda’s national shame, Archbishop Henry Orombi told the Church of Uganda’s general synod in August. “We have a problem in our country where 85% of us are considered to be Christian, and yet we have one of the highest levels of corruption in the world.”
Corruption was “too polite a word” to describe the collapse of public integrity. Corruption was “theft. It is stealing. It is seeking first my own kingdom, and not seeking first the Kingdom of God.”

He called upon the government to “step up the fight against corruption. Ugandans expect that steps will be taken, as soon as possible, to bring the perpetrators of grand corruption to justice through prosecution and recovery of embezzled public funds and assets.”

From the church’s perspective, corruption was symbolic of man’s fallen state and could be defeated only through faithfulness to God and by the strengthening of “our work ethic.”

“Work is sacred,” Archbishop Orombi said. Whether one was a peasant farmer or a banker or a civil servant, all work “should be done to the glory of God,” he said.