Uganda: Corruption Is Now Uganda's Aids, Says U.S. Envoy
By Racheal Ninsiima
01 October 2014
Scott DeLisi, the American ambassador to Uganda, has urged the ruling NRM
government to crack down hard on public sector corruption because it is
turning away foreign investment.
Speaking at the first ever 'Buy America expo' at Sheraton hotel recently,
DeLisi described corruption as the new "slim" (HIV/Aids) threatening
Uganda's future. He said corruption was already reducing the country's
international competitiveness, eroding trust and sullying corporate images.
Some 50 American companies showcased their products at the expo organised by
the US embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce.
"Twenty years ago, the government of Uganda saw [the] 'slim' disease, which
we now know as HIV/Aids, as an existential threat to Uganda's future.
Corruption is now the new slim," DeLisi said. "We need to treat corruption
as the pervasive and destructive evil and abuse of power and trust that it
is, rather than allowing it to hide behind far less damning terms like 'rent
seeking'."
He added that the country needed visible and resolute leadership from
government to champion honest and transparent investments and to expose
corrupt practices.
In the recent Transparency International's index on corruption, Uganda
ranked 140th out of 177 countries worldwide surveyed (with the 177th country
being the most corrupt).