A new project has been initiated to enable citizens in Uganda and Zambia to report suspected corruption and misuse of public funds using web and mobile tools.
The Action for Transparency (A4T) Project has built an app and website that gives the opportunity for anyone who can connect to the Internet to report on suspected corruption or mismanagement of public funds. The app/web displays financial information on how much primary schools and health centres are supposed to receive from government and provides the possibility to report any suspected misuse of public funds.
Action for Transparency is funded by Sida, the Swedish International Development Agency and is being piloted in Wakiso district of Uganda and the Lusaka province of Zambia.
Lars Tallert, the Team Leader of Action for Transparency says the Action for Transparency project combines resources from all sectors to ensure that citizens are provided with the best tools and data to report on suspected corruption and misuse of public funds.
“In order to succeed there must be a close cooperation between civil society, government and media, IT-experts and anti-corruption experts,” he told journalists on Friday at a press conference in Kampala.
“We have received much support from the Monitoring Unit of the Uganda Ministry of Finance, who are assisting us with data. We have contracted a consultant to verify the data and to make a reality check in the districts-comparing the official data with what is on ground,” Tallert adds.
The project is being implemented by Fojo Media Institute (part of Linnaues University in Sweden), Transparency International Uganda (TIU), Uganda Media Development Foundation (UMDF) and the African Center for Media Excellence (ACME).
“We have developed a website and mobile app with a database of budget allocations to schools and health centers. We are also going to carry out trainings of over 2,000 journalists, human rights activists and local government leaders for them to be able to use mobile and web tools to access, assess and communicate about budget allocations and spending in order to minimize corruption and capture of public funds,” says Peter Wandera, the Executive Director of TIU.
Wandera adds that if the concept is successful as they expect, there is a possibility to scale up the project in other districts, and in other countries.
James Kigozi, the Executive of UMDF says that the people trained will be part of our public awareness campaign planned to be launched in March 2014 and be able to track government expenditures and act as whistle-blowers by reporting any findings on the mobile app, website and on the project’s facebook page, as well by sms to 0755582134 or calling 0412532083.
