The Functioning of the Public Anti Corruption Institutions: A case of Inspectorate of Govern-ment (IG) in Arua District, Uganda

This paper explores the effectiveness of Anti corruption public institution, Inspectorate of Government (IG) in enforcing its mandates. Besides several anti corruption institutions established in Uganda in 1990s to combat corruption, the 1995 Constitution of Republic of Uganda provides more enforcement constitutional mandates to the independent agency IG to combat corruption in the country. Though the institution has enforcement powers, the study findings reveal the infectiveness of the institution in enforcement of its legal mandates in investigation of corruption complaints, enforcement of the leadership code of con-duct and prosecution of investigated corruption cases in Arua district. More so the findings of the study reveal weak institutional capacity in terms of finance, personnel and logistics that hampers the effectiveness of the IG in achieving its targeted goals in combating public sector corruption. The paper further argues that weak policies and lack of political will in support of the institution hinders effective enforcement strategies of anti corruption institution of IG in Uganda. It therefore argues that improvements in the effective performance of anti corruption institution to make it meet its set targets in the struggle of combating corruption can only be possible if there is strong civil society and political will of top leaders who are committed to collectively ensure effective performance of the institution in combating corruption. It conclude by arguing that ineffective anti corruption institution will create dominant space for corruption in the public sector in Uganda. Relevance to Development Studies This paper is relevant to development studies due to its focus on government institutional strategies to fight corruption which is one of the major development challenges in developing countries. By focusing on the role played by established public institution in combating corruption, this paper hopes to add knowledge on the practice of governments in promoting Good Governance in the public sector.