Not long ago, someone told me that shs 1,500,000 was needed by some body in the Administrator General’s Office to process the Letters of Administration for the Estate of the deceased. I told her that for me, there is no such free money to Government employees. We are having these problems because people are not educated enough about the official charges and the right procedures to do certain things. Some time ago, I was told that people were parting with at least shs 25,000 to get Birth Certificate. I called to that office and after paying the official charges in the bank, I demanded to know when I had to check again to collect the certificate and the period was 3 weeks which eventually got to a month. If it is a requirement by law to have certain documents, it is incumbent upon the responsible person’s in these offices to see that their officers don’t cheat the clients. I am one of those who is not ready to pay any bribe to any Ugandan, though, in the cases where the Uganda Police is involved, I am told that it is the norm at many Stations to pay something to have these people move, this is under the cover that they don’t have facilitation to execute what they are Constitutionally mandated to.
This is therefore to alert the Administrator General that some of the people who are manning things under him are cheating the public and that way they are able to make ends meet. It is wrong to sit back while such acts are going on. Rather, it is better for the office to negotiate to see that official charges are legally increased and that out of such increment, at least some increment is made to the salaries of the staff. It may be better an alternative if the office decides to make clients to pay a fee call it whatever so that out of that fee they are able to pay a top up to the officers, but it is unethical for no good justification to demand say shs 1,500,000 from a client to help him get the Letters of Administration of the Estate.
William Kituuka Kiwanuka
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