Over 30 public and civil servants were awarded in the 2020 third annual integrity awards that were organized by civil society organizations that have championed the fight against corruption in Uganda.
This was at a function held at Royal Suits Hotel in Kampala were distinguished Ugandans were appreciated for their enormous services and exhibiting integrity and transparency within their societies.
The National Citizen Integrity Awards 2020 were held under the theme; Promoting Social Accountability through Active Citizenary organized by Action Aid International Uganda, Transparency International, Anti-corruption Coalition Uganda among others.
The Executive Director, Transparency International Uganda (TIU), Peter Wandera noted that the awards were established three years ago to recognize the efforts by organizations and individuals fighting corruption in Uganda.
“The winners are a source of inspiration and this gives us hope that with right people, we can fight corruption; many public and civil servants work with a lot of temptations and those who resist such temptations must be awarded for doing good,” Wandera said.
Wandera added that the awards as well provide space for citizens, government and development partners to renew their commitment in the fight against corruption a vice that has affected many lives of Ugandans.
“This also helps us to document best practices in fighting corruption; we have a lot that we can copy from these winners of the integrity awards on what they are doing right,” Wandera noted.
The Country Director of Action Aid International Uganda, Xavier Ejoyi noted that arriving at the winners is a citizen led process.
“It’s not us who choose these people but we rather facilitate the process, we lay down some criteria that will enable picking these people; we want to find out whether somebody did a unique act of service of integrity,” Ejoyi said.
Ejoyi explained that someone may have helped to recover some money or was being bribed and resisted that or was able to help with investigations to prosecute a corrupt person and was at their own risk.
“We also looked at somebody who has been consistently considered as a person of integrity in their public service life, they have never been accused of bribery and citizens know about that,” Ejoyi said.
Ejoyi noted that the award is important in the fight against corruption because the winners automatically become champions of integrity that are looked to as men and women who are advancing integrity.
“People are looking for examples in the fight against corruption, the society is generally saying that there are no longer any genuine Ugandan that is not corrupt; this is to tell Ugandans that it is possible to maintain integrity.”
He added that, “This effort supplements our work of naming and shaming the corruption since we are awarding those contributing to the fight against corruption by exercising integrity.”
