----- Original Message ----- 
From: gook makanga 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 9:04 PM
Subject: Civil servants amass wealth amidst poverty


Civil servants amass wealth amidst poverty
By Badru Mulumba
Feb 8, 2004

      MUNYONYO - Public servants are growing richer even as the average income of Ugandans falls.

      This revelation left delegates to a World Bank summit on poverty, wondering how civil servants could do so well yet poverty has gone up from 35 percent in 2000 to 38 percent in 2003.

      The three day conference: The Challenge of growth and poverty reduction, attended by World Bank managing director, Mr Shengman Zhang, and executive director, Dr Louis Kasekende comes ahead of a major World Bank summit in China, in May, expected to showcase Uganda. 

      It started on Friday. "According to statistics, poverty declined, especially among the government sector," Dr John Okidi, executive director, Economic Policy Research Centre told the conference. 

      He however said that according to further analysis, property income had increasingly become a crucial part of individual incomes. "Probably some of this is contributing to the wealth of the civil servants," he said.

      Later, Okidi could not explain the actual increase in wealth by civil servants. He said that the report, funded by United Nations Development Program (UNDP), is still a draft. 

      But the UNDP Resident Representative, Mr Daouda Toure wondered: "I am hearing that the wealth of civil servants is increasing rather rapidly. I don't know how, but I think we would do better to have an efficient civil service."

      When later asked by Sunday Monitor if he was defending the wealth of civil servants, Toure said: "What I know, you need to have the civil service to do well in order to be able to deliver services." 

      However, the minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Mr Gerald Ssendaula, told this writer that the increase in civil servants' wealth was also the in findings of the poverty survey of 2000.

      Dr Marios Obwona said that civil servants are possibly doing more than one job. 
      Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu said that reducing poverty would require deepening democracy. 

      "[Currently] the more you move away from the centre of power, the poorer you get. In the long term, if poor people govern, they will use that power to protect their interests, including reducing poverty." 

      Striking an optimistic chord, Uganda Investment Authority chairman, Dr William Kalema said there is usually a five-year time lag between investment and the time we should expect to see poverty going down.

      But Economics don, Dr Gemina Ssemwogerere said that it may be important to revert to an informal discussion forum as was the case during Museveni's first five years in power.

      The summit that ends on Sunday has brought together ambassadors of the US, Italy, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, China, Japan, and the EU. 
     


© 2004 The Monitor Publications





Gook 

"The strategy of the guerilla struggle was to cause maximum chaos and destruction in order to render the government of the day very unpopular"
Lt. Gen. Kaguta Museveni (Leader of the NRA guerilla army in Luwero)


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