Yahoo – AFP,
Amy Fallon, 28 Sep 2014
 |
Gerald
Businge, the project co-ordinator of Action for Transparency (A4T),
demonstrating how his anti-corruption app works, in Kampala, Uganda, September
19,
2014 (AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani)
|
Kampala
(AFP) - Douglas Buule, a teacher at Kiwenda primary, a government school
outside Uganda's capital Kampala, has a recurring problem.
"The
money used to access the chalk comes late, even towards the end of term,"
explains Buule. "It is a big burden to keep on writing on a chalk board.
So sometimes the head teacher buys chalk on credit or even uses her own
money."
Funds
arriving late or going missing altogether also mean the school's 529 students
usually only take exams twice a term instead of monthly, said the teacher.
 |
Gerald
Businge, the project co-ordinator of
Action for Transparency, demonstrating how
his anti-corruption app works, September 19,
2014 (AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani)
|
But now, a
new project is shifting the balance of power.
Through the
Action for Transparency (A4T) Smartphone app, being piloted in three Ugandan
districts, communities are being armed with information allowing them to report
anonymously when budget allocations for health centres and schools fail to
match public expenditure.
Using the
GPS-enabled A4T app, a user can receive the location of a school or health
centre, the number of staff allocated to them by both the government and the
institution, and the amount of money approved and dispersed.
If they
suspect money is being misused -- for example if the government provides funds
for an ambulance which then is nowhere to be seen -- the user can simply click
on the app's whistle icon to send an instant report to the A4T website and
their Facebook page.
"If it
is a police case we'll report it to the police," said Moses Karatunga, the
programme officer for Transparency International (TI) Uganda. "If it's an
advocacy issue we can take it up with the ministry."
Keeping
tabs on the cash flow
In the past
year, Uganda's corruption rating has deteriorated, according to TI. They are
introducing the app along with the Fojo Media Institute, part of Linnaeus
University in Sweden, the Uganda Media Development Foundation (UMDF) and the
African Center for Media Excellence (ACME).
Gerald
Businge, the A4T project coordinator, said Ugandans feared blowing the whistle
on corruption.
"They think they could get sacked, they could get victimised," he said. "There is also that worry 'I report and nothing is done.' So we're saying 'take this to the public court'."
 |
President
of Uganda Yoweri Museveni address
the United Nations General Assembly on
September 24, 2014 in New York. An app is
helping to tackle corruption in
Uganda (AFP
Photo/Andrew Burton)
|
"When
people know they're being monitored they're less likely to squander or misuse
money," said Businge.
Community
monitors such as Twahah Musoke visit schools and health facilities in their
area a minimum of two times in a quarter. The institutions and facilities can
also access the app from the TI representatives.
Already
Musoke has been to five schools, including Kiwenda primary, and three health
centres in the Busukuma area, home to about 16,000 people, in Wakiso district.
Challenges
related to monitoring money include financial committees not knowing how much
government money is being sent, and information and money staying with one
person, for instance a school headmistress, instead of a team, he said.
"We
need to empower people to realise it's their responsibility to access this
information," said Musoke.
"If
they go and seek the information the administrators of these facilities will be
in a position to account for and utilise (the money) the way it's meant to be
utilised."
Businge
said phones were chosen for the project as "very many Ugandans have mobile
phones and at least every family has a mobile phone".
"We're
telling people that phones can do much more than what you're already
doing," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment