Finance minister Matia Kasaija on Thursday blamed the corruption that has prevailed during the National Resistance Movement regime on low pay of civil servants.
According to Kasaija, such unresolved problem has for long been key to making it easy for the public servants to accept bribes and involve themselves in corruption deals.
“My secretaries earn about Shs400,000 per month. It’s on that money that they have to pay rent, transport and meals among other things,” said Kasaija.
The minister revealed that he has already written to the public service ministry to enhance salaries of public servants including police and the army. He believes the salary rationalisation programme will rid government departments of corruption.
In June, during the state of the nation address, President Yoweri Museveni accused the Finance Ministry of being the ‘source’ of corruption as he said “it is where projects are designed with extras”.
For years, Uganda has been listed among the most corrupt countries in the world as illustrated by the Transparency International Index. Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has always indicated that billions of funds are stolen or mismanaged by public officials every financial year.
Corruption is said to be the major reason for the failure of governments to improve basic public services such as education, electricity and health sector among others.