By Phionah Kesaasi
The minister of Ethics and Integrity Hon. James Nsaba Buturo has said that government of Uganda has made major strides in combating the scourge of corruption.

“Efforts to strengthen institutions whose mandate is to lead the fight against corruption are continuing; If Ugandans can be told about this message, a lot is going to change in this country”, he said.

In respect of the above, Hon. Buturo revealed that government has set up a conducive environment that provides safe guards and incentives to citizens who have valuable information about corrupt officials. This has been made easy by the passing of the Whistle blower’s Bill into legislation by parliament waiting for the president’s assent into law.

“Government therefore appeals to officials in the public service(ministries, corporation, parastatal organisations) and their counterparts in the private sector to get ready and use this new tool to benefit Ugandans”, he said.

The minister however noted that there are some legistmate questions of commitment and effective fight against corruption. This has turned the people of Uganda into victims of corruption.

“We have discovered that one of the major missing links which is partly to blame for the limited work is the citizens. The Whistleblower’s bill is an answer to this link; it is about time they fully came on board” he affirmed.

The whistleblower Protection Bill is a legislation that provides for procedures for making disclosures and protects whistleblowers from any form of reprisal by the employer, “the information provided will help us carry out investigations and tackle corruption which has continued to undermine the development of our country”

The whistleblower Protection Bill gives an enabling environment for both citizens and non-citizens to disclose freely information on corrupt or improper conduct both in public and private sectors. “The uniqueness of this bill is that it is addressing what has traditionally limited Ugandans from regularly taking part in the governance of their country”, he said.

A whistleblower is a person who makes a disclosure of illegal or corrupt practices to an authorized officer under the bill. In this case, authorized officers should not be below the rank of Assistant Inspector of Police, an Inspectorate Officer in the Inspectorate of Government, a Human Rights Commissioner with Uganda Human Rights Commission, a Senior Ethics Officer with the Directorate for Ethics and Integrity, Executive Director of National Environment Management Authority, the Resident District Commissioner, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament.

The bill further warns of any authorized officer who discloses the identity of a whistleblower or the details of the disclosure. “failure to take up action upon receipt of the disclosure commits an offence and is liable to conviction to 5 years or fine not exceeding 120 currencency points or both” Hon, Buturo warned

The Whistleblower shall be rewarded for their information given with an amount of 5% of the net money recovered as a result of their successful disclosure