Donors offering refugee and health-related aid to Uganda have urged NGOs implementing projects to pay keen attention to accountability.
Richard Nelson, the USAID Uganda Mission Director told officials from the government, the NGO sector, and donors that one of the areas where corruption accrues is in procurement and an estimated amount of 1.2 trillion dollars is lost in economic and governance loss each year in developing countries due to corruption.
In Uganda, he says a study done two years ago found $ 2.5 billion to be lost in corruption annually.
Nelson who was giving a keynote address at the Annual Uganda Donor Round Table Forum organized by the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) on Thursday urged Ugandans not to tolerate corruption scandals even within the government.
He pointed out the theft of Iron sheets which has so far exposed senior officials in government as a concerning development.
The meeting was held at the time when a section of social media users took to Twitter to expose theft and other forms of corruption within NGOs in an initiative dubbed Uganda NGO Exhibition.
Officials warn that having such stories coming out at a time when there are a lot of humanitarian challenges amid dwindling resources only means a lot more to vulnerable people.
Patrick Sambaga the Country Director of TPO Uganda said while they are an accountable organization, they still face the challenge of getting many small projects whose impact can be difficult to quantify when doing accountability. He called for increased funding if more impact is to be felt in the community.
Sambaga also noted the challenge of the bureaucracy they encounter working with the government to regulate their activities which in the end affects their outcomes.
Experts at the meeting also pointed out the need for more donor funding to be directed to local agencies for effective implementation. According to USAID, the plan is to have 50% of their funding directed to local implementing organizations by 2030.