I love in a country where i ‘need’ to pay someone to have my police statement taken at most police stations, even filling out forms and getting things done quickly. (‘quickly’ in reference to the actual time the process should and was planned to take). Many people attempt to stop one of the world’s oldest vices through many ways including ways that actually promote it. Unfortunately corruption in Uganda is still high!
I always find IT and technology in General as a solution to everything, IT should be used to get rid of corruption and that starting point shouldn’t be any sector or ministry, we need to start with IT itself. I utter this basing on the fact that am among the few people in this country with a truly genuine version of Windows 8, In fact even my university doesn’t have genuine licenses on a very big number of its computers.
We need to weed out the corruption and evil in IT before we even start drawing a blueprint on using online systems to to kill the vice. We need more open software and systems not systems that work like ‘forces from the village’ (call it witchcraft) but systems and solutions that people understand and are aware of how they actually run. Talk about APIs.
The government needs to get rid of cash payment and embrace automated Payment systems like EFT, mobile money, Online banking etc. The problem with cash is you need to have a son or daughter of evil and they are liable to temptations and sin. Online systems on the other hand are automatic and reliable since a transaction will not complete until all necessary conditions are met. Kudos to URA for embracing this!
What my dear country needs is IT that has public logs to payments made by and to the government that way media houses can follow, concerned citizens can track and notice which contractor was paid and for what purpose. Take a look at the Bitcoin transaction log for example, its brief and real-time embracing an online portal with such details would streamline some processes.
Reporting platforms
Our country needs powerful platforms which can be used by any Ugandan free of charge and any ISP should grant free access so that any one can report that traffic officer and the name would show up on a website or mobile app. U report tried but we need to have a bigger platform that is endorsed by the government and managed by a private entity, anything the government controls is likely to crash, ask yourself how many ministry websites are updated as frequently as every 2 months.
Updated content on government portals
This regime whose reign is longer than the years I have lived still believes in print, a technology that is dying, slow, and poorly available. The ministry needs to utilize the bandwidth it pays for and post newsletters and job advertisements on its websites. Remember most jobs are only advertised on staff notice boards at the ministry meaning only a few people see them and chances of nepotism are likely. Availability of such information creates an almost fair ground for the ethic to rid our government of corruption.
Hey URA, please share a dedicated sub domain for tax rates and don’t hide where only robots can find it. Remember if the public is unaware of the right amount of taxes, they are likely to be cheated by someone who thinks he or she loves money more than any of us.
Unavailability of information causes ignorance and trust me ignorance is a very big blanket that warms corruption
Online tracking
Taxpayers lose lots of money on things like fuel, some fuel that is guzzled by non government cars. Tracking government automobiles puts a check on mileage and some systems go as far as tracking fuel consumption, using such will check on the exaggerated fuel budgets by civil servants.
We need an Online education Information System
Sometimes the president recommends people for ministerial positions and yet the people don’t have the right qualifications because the proof of qualification is personal and never available to the masses.
Imagine a website where you can access and view results of any person by entering a registration number or student number to view their transcript. A system that picks its data through an API of the actual education results systems (for security). That way we would reduce on the number of unqualified people leading us. Trust me such people are the most corrupt.
The police needs some Tech
Papers are the reason some cases disappear, I am not sure whether they practice black magic but you know this happens often in this landlocked country. The ladies and gentlemen still write stuff on paper meaning making copies is very lengthy and hectic, much as they need to dump about 90% of the entire force to be able to get IT savvy officers who can enter reported cases into a system. That way we won’t need to make photocopies of cases application forms, and some of this technology can be used for things the privacy advocates wouldn’t love but they would make solving corruption related cases simpler.
Well those are the few ways Uganda could use to curb corruption but from the look of things, we still have a long way to go. Its possible though,
Please share your views below, and we shall share your views in a dedicated post for what our Dear audience has to say. I
