A total of 61,570 public officers are set to face punishment for failing to declare their wealth to the Inspectorate of Government (IGG) by the April 30 deadline.
The IGG, Lady Justice Aisha Naluzze Bitala, said on Friday that her office had successfully concluded the exercise for the declaration of assets and incomes by public officers, which ran between April 1 and April 30.
She said that out of the 302,800 public officers registered on the Inspectorate of Government Online Declaration System (IG-ODS), only 241,230 successfully submitted their declarations, representing an 80 percent compliance rate.
A total of 61,570 public officers therefore failed to declare their incomes, assets, and liabilities.
“Going forward, the IG will process cases for officers who didn’t declare their assets and refer them to the Leadership Code Tribunal for adjudication,” she said.
She noted that some of the punishments for officers who failed to declare include fines, demotion, dismissal from office, vacation of office, and confiscation or forfeiture of illicitly acquired assets, gifts, or benefits to the government.
Quoting the law, the IGG said Section 4 of the Leadership Code Act requires leaders to declare their incomes, assets, and liabilities within three months after assuming office and thereafter every two years in March.
Section 5 of the same law requires all public officers to declare within three months after assuming office and subsequently every five years.
The IGG said that although the compliance rate stood at 80 percent, there were several challenges during the exercise, including late compliance, as many public officers waited until the last minute to submit their declarations.
This overwhelmed the system.
“Our office was flooded. On a daily basis, we had about 400 public servants in the last five days trying to declare their assets and liabilities,” she said, adding that this led to system shutdowns and network outages.
She also mentioned poor internet connectivity in rural areas, lack of access to computers and smartphones, and limited digital literacy among some public officers, particularly in upcountry districts.
