The government has an obligation to provide goods and services that will make life meaningful and worth living for its citizens. Since it came to power, the National Resistance Movement has underscored the centrality of public service delivery to its citizens. Colossal sums of money have been spent both at national and local levels to deliver improved health, education, agriculture, safe water, road network among others. Yet the quality of social services continues to be dauntingly wanting in terms of quality and quantity. According to the National Services Delivery Survey, (2015), only 34 percent of primary schools in Uganda has adequate classrooms while less than half (46%) of households ranked overall quality of services at Government health facilities as good.
A study by Actionaid (2012) showed that access to extension services in Uganda had dropped from 32 percent in 2000 to 12 percent in 2012. Deficiencies in quality and quantity of service delivery have been attributed to a large extent, on institutionalised corruption. It is estimated that Uganda is losing Ugx 875 bn($250m) of public resources ‘at least 3%’ of her GDP per annum to corruption.In spite of extensive legal and institutional apparatus in place, corruption has not subsided but continues to escalate. This paradox begs for explanations.
This issue has been written from ActionAid’s experience working with communities, other civil society organisations, private institutions and the government at different levels in monitoring the quality of service delivery and championing the campaign against theft of public resources in Uganda and in Africa. Corruption in Uganda and in Africa is widespread and seen as one of the greatest obstacles to the country’s economic
development and the provision of quality public services. The -weak law enforcement, money laundering, illicit financial flows, weak institutions and poor enforcement of laws exacerbate related challenges.
The policy brief argues the escalating level of corruption in Uganda is virtually a consequence of lack of political will to deal with the problem; and is just part of poor political accountability that haunts the Country. The policy brief therefore
recommends that undoing corruption predicament in Uganda must be discussed within the context of broader governance question of Uganda and not in isolation. There is need to build strong institutions grounded in true ethos of democratic governance. Strong and independent institutions coupled with political will are critical ifthe country is to deal with this cancer.