By Peter Ssebulime
Kampala: The governments of Japan, United Kingdom and Germany have resolved to discontinue direct funding to the refugee programme undertaken by the government Uganda, over failure to address conditions set out last year after an investigation unearthed financial abuse at the office the Prime Minister.
The joint investigation conducted by United Nations, the European Anti- Fraud Office and the government of Uganda discovered that the number of refugees in Uganda had been inflated by over 300,000 people and resources intended to provide for refugees had been stolen.
The Executive Director Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda Cissy Kagaba said investigations also revealed that funds had been lost through corruption, improper behavior in regard to awarding major contracts, overpayment for goods and services and other discrepancies which irked the donor community, hence their demand that immediate action be taken by all parties.
“It is shocking that 18 months after the UN led investigation into the matter Uganda is still conducting investigations. Those named in the report are known, the charges brought before them are well documented and the would-be beneficiaries who they deprived of the funds are also known.” Kagaba said.
Kagaba also indicated that Uganda has been a safe haven for refugee in the great lakes region and with over 1.4 million refugees and is the largest host country in Africa. She noted that in 2017, president Yoweri Museveni led a campaign (the Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees 2017 at Commonwealth Resort Hotel Munyonyo) from which USD350 million was raised in cash and pledges, again planned USD2Bn.
Meanwhile Peter Wandera, the Executive Director Transparency International Uganda, said that lack of transparency has cost the refugees in Uganda over 34.1 billion shillings (8.3m Euros) in funding from German and Shs69Bn (15m pounds) from UK and this will worsen the situation as Uganda is not able to shoulder the shortfall.
He said “The exit of Germany, the latest country to terminate direct funding, follows Uganda’s failure to address conditions set by Germany, some of which include; taking action against those implicated in the refugee scam.”
However Wandera said that the demands made by the Germans were that a response to the allegations be made by the implicated people, more accountability and transparency be instituted by the authorities, although these are yet to be met, 18 months later.
He therefore called upon the government of Uganda to institute measures to ensure that the officials implicated in the scandal are brought to justice and that measures are put in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
The already scarce funds have led to food rations being cut for refugees in all settlements, on top of failing to access medication and other social amenities.
