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The Inspector General of Government, Beti Kamya, presented the 47th annual report to Parliament. She emphasized the urgent need for a Civil Access Recovery Bill to recover stolen funds. Challenges in processing high-profile cases were noted, but no claims of political interference were substantiated.

The Inspector General of Government Beti Kamya presented to Parliament its 47th annual report for the year 2022/2023 with a call to legislators to urgently process the long-awaited civil access recovery Bill.

According to the IGG Beti Kamya, the Bill once passed, will help the Inspectorate recover the stolen funds from the assets of those found to be guilty of corruption.

On Wednesday 20^th September, 2023 as required by the law, the Inspector General of Government Beti Kamya presented the report to the Speaker of Parliament with the report indicating a decline in the conviction rate of corrupt officials from 53 to 40 per cent in the year reporting.

Shs7.99 billion was recovered from 3,504 corruption complaints registered between January last year and June this year. In the same period, only 43 convictions were made out of the 92 prosecutions concluded.

“In the past one and half years, we were able to order a refund of Shs38billions from different culprits and they have started paying, out of the Shs38b, we have managed to recover close to Shs8b,” Kamya said.

“Most of this money is recovered out of court settlements mainly because the court process takes a long time, it can go over ten years, and even when you secure a conviction it remains in the bears until the entire appeal process, Like Kazinda, is now in the East African Court of Appeal,” she added.

The report also indicates that that out of the over 32000 leaders meant to declare their assets under the Leadership Code Act, only 26541 declared with a total of 54 leaders prosecuted for declaring wrong information about their assets and wealth.

This has now compelled the IGG to ask Parliament to urgently process the civil assets recovery Bill that will help the inspectorate deal with receiving funds from corrupt officials found guilty of corruption.

On the guidance of the President not allowing soldiers to declare their wealth through the Public Use Leadership Code Act 2012, the IGG says the inspectorate is in the process of creating a special portal where all soldier will declare their wealth but under the supervision of CMI.

Asked about the challenges they are facing while processing the cases involving high-profile persons, the IGG says the issue of lack of formal documentation has caused a number of syndicated cases to be dropped.

She however dismissed claims that there has been some political interference in some of the cases involving high-profile persons.

The Commissioner of Parliament, Esther Afoyochan who represented the speaker in receiving the report asked the office of the IGG to interest itself in the operations of the Parish Development Model as the majority of the intended beneficiaries are receiving half of the funds they are supposed to receive.