Africa-Press – Uganda. The Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda has faulted a number of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) over failure to provide information to the public relating to government programmes, contracts and projects.
Although Uganda has enacted a number of laws in regard to access to information, the study noted that a number of government programmes have failed because they are at times shrouded with secrecy and the beneficiaries are not informed of what is going on.
Out of the 12,605 requests from the public to access information, only 818 requests were successful, 11,477 were unresolved and 244 requests were totally unattended too, according to the survey.
In an interview with this publication on Tuesday, Mr Marlon Agaba, Executive Director Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, said lack of harmonization caused confusion in the government MDAs noting that the government is using it as an advantage to deny information to the public.
“Lack of harmonisation in the agencies has caused confusion and government agencies and they are using that advantage to keep sending you to one another and that is why people are getting frustrated and even the requests are reducing,” Mr Agaba said.
Mr Agaba also noted that the Leadership Code Act gives mandate access of wealth declarations to the Inspectorate of Government but giving this information to the public has been problematic.
“So far we have not had any single successful attempt in terms of requesting information on wealth declaration. Nobody has been able to access that information. We have over 300,000 public servants declaring their liabilities and assets,” Mr Agaba said.
“Corruption thrives in secrecy like we are seeing it in Uganda, so there are very strong coercions with limited access to information,” he added.
Some of the government ministries that have been pinned for hoarding information include; ICT and National Guidance, Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP), Inspectorate of Government, Justice and Constitutional Affairs among others.
In Uganda, the right to access information is enshrined in Article 41 of the Constitution which stipulates that; “Every citizen has a right of access to information in the possession of the state or any other organ of the state except where the release of the information is likely to interfere with the security of the state or the right to the privacy of any other person.”
Ms Christine Byiringiro, the Program Manager of Uganda Debt Network, said government ministries had come up with policies and strategies which gave communications officers a role to play but there has been no harmonisation.
“Government MDAs should also urgently publish a manual of functions and index of records on requests received, and update the same every two years, as required by law,” Ms Byiringiro said
She appealed to Parliament to enact the Access to Information Act, 2005 in order for it to align with the Government of Uganda Communication Strategy.
“The Access to information law should be amended to formally include and clearly define the specific roles of communication officers and finalisation of the communication policy, which are necessary to streamline all government communication and harmonisation of the various seemingly contradicting laws with the Access to Information Act, 2005 should also be fast- tracked,” she said.
The Minister for Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, said the standing orders of the government mandates Permanent Secretaries and Executive Directors to release particular information relating to the organisation.
“Government information is managed professionally and in accordance with the established rules. We passed the access to information act and one can follow its provisions to access government information,” he said, adding that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) always want to find a way of faulting the government over anything, noting that the government has always been open with sharing of information.
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