The U.K. is withdrawing 7.5 million pounds (USD12 million) in direct aid to Uganda due to the African nation’s failure to address the misappropriation of funds from Commonwealth countries.
According to a spokesperson from the U.K. Department for International Development, the scandal is connected to expenses of the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, or CHOGM, which took place in Kampala, Uganda. Uganda and the U.K. are members of the Commonwealth group of nations.
“The UK government is very concerned about corruption and the impact on our development partnership with Uganda as well as the impact on ordinary Ugandans,” said Lillian Akot, head of communications at DfID. “Our support is absolutely reliant on the government of Uganda’s commitment to ensuring that money is used for its intended purpose and delivers results for poor people regardless of whether it is donor money or not.”
In March, Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ordered Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi to “take action” against government employees and private service providers who were reported to have misused CHOGM resources of 500 billion Ugandan shillings (USD220 million). So far, only John Bagonza, former chief engineer at the Ministry of Works, has been convicted, The Monitor reports.
