The Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) has released the second corruption perception index report underlying new trends of corruption which are continuing to hamper better service provision in Uganda.
Poor roads like this in Gulu, Uganda, affecting business in East Africa
In a report released recently, the PPDA found that most service providers are paying bribes to access work at the different local governments in Uganda, despite stringent procurement conditionals set by the government.
The report, a result of the survey by Reev Consult International shows that up to 81.1% of service providers surveyed admitted to giving a bribe to get contracts.
The report shows that a majority of service providers had offered a bribe of about 20% of the contract value with others had paid 20% for the contract awarded. It says this was especially at the district and sub-country level where respondents said most of the corruption is as compared to the central government.
Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba, the Executive Director of the company that did the survey on behalf of PPDA says this prevalent bribery and corruption tendencies at local councils had led to provision of poor goods and services to the public.
In part, this is due to the fact that the money available to contractors is reduced, while on the other hand, the public officials who would have supervised to ensure quality goods and services are compromised by the bribe.
The report notes that many respondents said calls for contracts sometimes do not provide all the information for potential bidders, with the right information reserved for the one who bribes their way to the contract or who is ready to offer part of the contract award sum.
The PPDA report at a glance- what causes corruption?
- Greed 44.9%
- Low salary 28.8%
- Ineffective punitive measures (11.4%).