Ending corruption through accountability: improving public services in Uganda

It is widely recognised that corruption can limit poverty reduction and economic growth. Improved accountability will help reduce corruption and improve the quality of crucial public services, but there is little evidence to demonstrate how a culture of accountability can be developed.

Economic growth depends largely on providing public goods such as infrastructure, health and education. Corruption not only deters the private investment required to set up these services, but also biases public spending in undesirable directions. Corruption thus contributes to the low quality of public services and governance, and is a significant barrier to development. Accountability, with openly available information and greater transparency, is crucial in the fight against corruption.

Two economists from the World Bank analyse the complex relationship between corruption, accountability and improved public service provision in Uganda. Their research is based on Uganda’s second National Integrity Survey, which covers households and the private and government sector.

The research shows that public confidence in certain areas of government – including the President’s Office and the Ministry of Finance – is very high.  But trust is limited in the institutions that are meant to implement decisions, including local councils, and very low concerning the police and military. More than three quarters of the respondents believed that corruption is common. By sector, education is the least corrupt with only 7% of users having had to pay bribes, followed by local administration (15%), health (21%), productive services (26%), and the police (36%).

The authors also find that:

• Despite a relatively high prevalence of corruption, few incidents are actually reported: more than 40% of the respondents listed an example of corruption they had not reported.
• The most important reason for not reporting corruption was a lack of knowledge of the procedures. Other reasons were a reluctance to offend others, and a feeling that it is not worth the trouble.
• Knowledge of how to report corruption differs among social groups. Business people and richer people are likely to be more aware of procedures, more satisfied with service delivery, and less likely to have paid a bribe. Women-headed and poorer households are less aware, and may be more vulnerable to corrupt practices.
• Greater accountability, in terms of the possibility for households to complain about bad service, is associated with improvements in all areas.
• Higher levels of pre-existing corruption make it more difficult to achieve improvements in education and health services.
• It is more difficult to achieve improvements in the education and health services if there are higher levels of corruption to start with.

Overall, Ugandan households are exposed to bribery on a large scale, their knowledge on how to confront corruption and deal with inadequate service provision is limited, and their satisfaction with quality of public services is low.

The authors recommend the following:

• improving knowledge on how to report corruption
• incentives for bureaucrats to take notice and act upon complaints
• taking measures to increase public debate and transparency: independent institutions, particularly churches, can help promote dialogue, especially in the media
• establishing mechanisms for the public to express opinions and increase civic responsibility.

Greater accountability can help to improve economic efficiency and reduce abuse of power by public officials, and is likely to be critical for Uganda’s development process.

Source(s):
Does Greater Accountability Improve the Quality of Public Service Delivery? Evidence from Uganda, World Development Vol. 33 No.1, pages 171-191, by Klaus Deininger and Paul Mpuga, 2005

Funded by: Norwegian ESSD Trust Fund

id21 Research Highlight: 31 January 2006

Further Information:
Klaus Deininger
1818 H Street N.W.
The World Bank
Washington, DC 20433
USA

Tel:  +1 202 4730430
Fax: +1 202 5221150
Contact the contributor: kdeininger@worldbank.org

The World Bank

Other related links:
'What keeps people poor in Uganda?'

'Behind the scenes military spending: dilemmas for managing public expenditure'

'Poverty Reduction Strategies: getting it right second time around'

'Devolution in Uganda – living up to expectations?'

Global Corruption Report, 2006; Transparency International