IG Trains Focal Persons On Declaration Of Assets
Dec. 13, 2022
The Inspectorate of Government (IG) has commenced training of Focal Persons on the Inspectorate of Government Online Declaration System (IG-ODS) Leader Register ahead of the next declaration of income, assets and liabilities scheduled for March 2023.
The training was opened by the Deputy Inspector General of Government (DIGG) Dr. Patricia Achan Okiria on December 13 2022.
The training seeks to enhance the capacity of Focal Persons and enlighten them on how to help public servants in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the government to submit their declarations.
“The Inspectorate will start with clearing the ground through training of stakeholders and data clean up to ensure that the register of leaders is correctly updated to reflect the various changes in the deployment and employment of those that have been leaders,” Dr. Okiria told the Focal Persons.
During the training, Focal Persons will be taken through the legal framework governing declarations, a step by step practical on the IG-ODS as a system, its communication tools comprising the various platforms for supporting the receipt and submission of declarations and their role as Focal Persons.
“The IG-ODS being an online based system has had several improvements such as self-invitation and leaders support systems. These developments require the public sensitisation to enable the different users to appreciate the system. We hope to take you through all the new changes to assist you and those you will be helping to sail through successfully,” she said.
The IG is mandated under Articles 225(d) and 234 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995, Section 3(1) of the Leadership Code Act, 2002 and Section 8(1) (d) of the Inspectorate of Government Act, 2002, to supervise and enforce the Leadership Code of Conduct.
Under Section 4 of the Act, leaders are required to declare their income, assets and liabilities within three months after being appointed or elected into a position of leadership and thereafter every two years during the month of March.
The Leadership Code Act (LCA) which came into force in 2002 was enacted to prohibit behaviour that is likely to compromise honesty, probity, impartiality and integrity of public officers in the management of public affairs, public funds and other public property, likely to among others lead to corruption in public affairs through non-adherence to the rule of law, abuse of office and authority.
Dr. Okiria said that the operationalization of the Leadership Code Tribunal (LCT) has gone a long way in helping to bring to book those that did not comply.
LCT is a government institution, established under Article 235A of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda as amended and Section 19A of the Leadership Code (Amendment) Act 2017.
The tribunal is mandated under Section 19B of the Leadership Code (Amendment) Act to receive, examine and determine any breach of the Code referred to it by the Inspectorate.
Where a person is found guilty of any breach of the Leadership Code of Conduct, punishments are varied according to the nature of the breach and range from warnings, caution, fines, demotion and dismissal from office to confiscation of undeclared or illegally acquired property to mention but a few.
However, members of the public who are dissatisfied with the decision of the IG regarding declaration of assets can petition the Leadership Code Tribunal (LCT) for arbitration.
Dr Okiria revealed to the participants during the training that last year alone the Inspectorate of Government received declarations of a sizeable number of public servants and was able to do verification and bring to book those that did not comply.
She challenged the Focal Persons to exude integrity, professionalism, innovativeness, impartiality and gender equality and equity which are some of the values which the Inspectorate upholds.
Read full remarksPreviously, leaders were filling paper declarations of income, assets and liabilities leading to high costs of procuring, distributing, collecting and storing declaration forms for over 25,000 (twenty five thousand) leaders for every declaration period.
But the current Online Declaration System (IG-ODS) has enabled the Inspectorate to receive, process and manage the declarations electronically and it is fast, cheap and efficient.
Under the IG-ODS, leaders can submit their declarations from anywhere in the world, as long as there is internet connectivity and no longer have to physically queue at the IG offices.