How IGG behaved last year

Aggrieved parties are overwhelming the Office of the Inspector General of Government (IG) with cases that can be resolved more quickly by other mediators, the Inspector General of Government (IGG) said.

While highlighting the problem of complaint handling in a press release on October 10, the IGG, Ms Beti Olive Kamya, said people tend to report cases to officers at the top without exhausting avenues that lie at the source.

“For example, officers protesting victimization or late payment of wages tend to approach the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) instead of engaging the human resources officer first,” the IG’s office said in a news release.

Instead, officers were advised to “always deal with grievances at source” and that addressing grievances at source, particularly in ministries, departments and agencies, is important for expeditious resolution of complaints and improved service delivery.

The remarks come weeks after the IG’s office commemorated International Ombudsman Day, celebrated annually on the second Thursday of October. This year’s theme was: “Here to hear you”.

Citing achievements over the past year, the IGG cited the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to resolve at least 500 organizational disputes.

She named some of the institutions like the Uganda Cancer Institute, Uganda Investment Authority, Makerere University and various local governments that used alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to quickly resolve their issues.

Some of the cases take the form of non-payment of wages, pensions, gratuities, compensations and labor disputes such as irregularities in recruitment, promotion, ban, wrongful dismissal and victimization.

In its report from July 2023 to June 2024, the other achievement recorded by the IGG was the resolution of more than 2,000 issues.

“The interventions resulted in recoveries and monies paid to individual claimants in the form of unpaid wages, gratuities, pensions and other benefits. The total was Shs15b (equivalent to US$14,109,589),” the report said.

Ms Kamya in her message to commemorate Ombudsman Day said: “If public officials and citizens adhere to the rule of law, there will be effective public service delivery in Uganda. Public servants hold public offices in the trust of the people. Therefore, they must respect the public and serve them diligently and without delay.”

She added: “The Inspectorate of Government is sensitizing the entire population of Uganda to demand quality services as a constitutional right. We call on the public to say no to poor quality services and report to the Government’s Inspector General when they have not been treated properly.”

Uganda lost at least Shs 30 billion to corruption and recorded about 2,377 corruption complaints in the 2023/2024 financial year, Kamya said in September.

She has repeatedly expressed her frustrations with corruption, saying the vice continues to hinder effective service delivery.

In the IG’s half-yearly report published a few months ago, the ombudsman named inadequate digitalisation, inadequate staffing, inadequate transport equipment due to an old fleet of vehicles, weak systems to address maladministration and low headcount as some of the major challenges . that her team faces in the fight against corruption.

She also cited failure to enforce the Code of Conduct and awareness among government officials as a major challenge in the war against corruption.

Talking to monitored yesterday, Mr. Marlon Agaba, the Executive Director of the Uganda Anti-Corruption Coalition, gave mixed reactions to the institution’s one-year performance.

“They have done quite well in terms of holding meetings to resolve ombudsman issues, bridging the gaps in communication with citizens by introducing freephone lines for people to report cases, as well as having a strong online presence that interacts with citizens, as opposed to where they were imprisoned before. off, said Mr. Agaba.

With a 2021 report by the IG saying Uganda loses up to Shs 9.1 trillion annually to corruption, Mr Agaba said the institution is still struggling to recover the stolen money, a major setback.

The ombudsman is a mediator between the government and its citizens, and in their role as mediators, they ensure that citizens’ concerns about public office are addressed, thereby promoting good governance.