By Spy Uganda
Kampala: The African Peer Review Mechanism team from countries across the continent have on Tuesday continued with their engagements with the senior officials and heads of sectors in the Republic of Uganda.
The APRM team led by Bishop Dinis Sengulane representing Southern Africa visited the Ministries of Public Service and Works and Transport where they held meetings with Ministers, Permanent secretaries and their representatives, and heads of departments at the ministries.
The APRM team, under the guidance of Uganda’s National Planning Authority, conducted a planned targeted review programme under the theme: non-responsiveness Civil Service in Uganda.
Sengalane said The National Planning Authority ensures the integration of the APRM in the National Development Plans. A Committee of APRM Focal Points in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) of government ensure actions assigned in the National Programme Action are included in the National Budget, implemented and reported on to the NGC annually.
The NGC is composed of Uganda NGO Forum; Private Sector Foundation of Uganda; Academia; Parliament of Uganda with both the ruling party representative and the opposition represented recommended by leader of the opposition; and government as Ex-Officio member.
“The APRM promotes adherence to norms, standards and codes of conduct contained in the Declaration on Democratic, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance adopted on 9 March 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria. The APRM review process is thus conducted on the basis of the values, codes and standards contained in the Declaration.”
The Bishop and his team asked the Minister to explain how the public service has managed to deal with the challenges of corruption during recruitment of public servants and nepotism that are rampant in most African countries.
Mukasa said Uganda has managed to mitigate corruption and nepotism by introducing online application forms for all public service jobs and to avoid middlemen, or negotiations, also the applicants are subjected to aptitude tests set by independent institutions, to avoid corruption.
Mukasa said additional measures for preventing corruption, including rules and procedures for hiring, rotation, promotion, professionalization, and training of civil servants also play a role in the combating of corruption in the public sector. staff rotation in jobs that are vulnerable to corruption is expected to assist in preventing corrupt relationships from forming and in disrupting established corrupt relationships.
