THE PRESIDENT URGES AKOL TO SNIFF FOR UGANDA AS AUDITOR GENERAL.

A NEW Auditor General, Edward Akol, has taken over office, replacing the long serving John Muwanga who retired recently after serving in the position for over 20 years 
President Yoweri Museveni presided over the swearing in of Akol as the Auditor General in a ceremony that took place at State House Entebbe on Monday. The oath was administered by the Head of Public service & Secretary to Cabinet, Ms. Lucy Nakyobe Mbonye. 
 
President Museveni, in his congratulatory message to Akol, expressed concern over the alarming level of corruption that seems to be eating up both the public service and the private sector in the country. 
Museveni emphasized that the country was counting on Akol and his team in the office of the Auditor General to detect and eradicate the cancer that threatens the economic development of Uganda 
He called on him to ‘smell’ for the country if he is to deal with corruption in the country. “I congratulate you and your family for being appointed the Auditor General of the country. The Banyankole say ‘ _Orurikwenda kwita embwa rugigara enyindo ,’ loosely translated as a dog, if it can no longer smell, then it will die, so Akol’s job is to ‘smell’ for Uganda,” he said. 
 
The President cautioned the new Auditor General about some of his staff who he said could be writing false reports in exchange for money. He asked him to often involve and engage the public in the process of auditing public funds. 
“You should not depend solely on written evidence but rather use the public to gather information about corruption, send people to the field to find out. You can rely the written records but also on the field checks,” he added. 
 
Akol was approved by parliament on July 4, 2024 as Auditor General, after his name was submitted to the House by President Museveni. 
 
The swearing in ceremony was also attended by top government officials including the Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija, the Permanent Secretary- Ministry of Finance, Ramathan Ggoobi, the Clerk to Parliament, Adolf Mwesige. Akl was also accompanied by his family. 
 
Akol is a seasoned auditor, having joined the Office of the Auditor General as an auditor in August 1994. He was later promoted to senior auditor in July, 1999 and later became a senior principal auditor in 2004 before being appointed as Deputy Auditor General. 
There has been a loud public outcry over the rampant corruption that has threatened to eat up the country if not checked urgently. 
President Museveni has also publicly acknowledged the alarming rate of corruption especially in government offices, prompting him to set up anti-corruption organs attached to the President’s office, besides the Offices of the Inspectorate of Government and Auditor General. 
The rampant corruption in the public service takes the form of bribes, where money exchanges hands in order to obtain government services, selling of government jobs by official recruiting agencies to falsifying of the government payroll, by including ghost workers. 
 The Ministry of Public Service has requested the Inspectorate of Government and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to investigate cases of ghost workers and irregularly employed individuals earning illegal salaries.  
 President Museveni has also recently directed the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), to arrest and prosecute all government officials linked to ghost civil servants on the payroll. 
The Directive comes after several reports of ghost employees in government entities earning salaries and all other privileges, costing the government billions of shillings. 
 An audit conducted by the Public Service Ministry between July, 2019 and December, 2023 indicates that there are close to 10,000 ghost workers in the government employment system.