Poverty and Corruption In Africa, Project

In October 2008, Transparency International Uganda secured funds from Anti-corruption Country Threshold Project (a USAID funded project) to introduce Integrity Pacts in Uganda. An integrity pact is a tool developed by Transparency International to curb corruption in public procurement. This tool has been successfully used in many countries all over the world and the effects have been positively encouraging. Voluntary agreements are made, involving bidders and the government, to restrict opportunities for corruption in a particular project. The Integrity Pact (IP) was designed and launched by Transparency International in the 1990s with the primary objective of safeguarding public procurement from corruption.

It contains rights and obligations to the effect that neither side will: pay, offer, demand or accept bribes; collude with competitors to obtain the contract; or engage in such abuses while carrying out the contract. The goal of the Integrity pact is to reduce any (and almost ensure no) chances of corrupt practices during procurement through a binding agreement between the agency and bidders for specific contracts.

Purpose of the project

To enhance ethical businesses practices and mobilize the citizenry to demand for increased accountability in public contracting. This is because the field of public procurement has been a battleground for corruption fighters. It is in public procurement that most of the "grand corruption" occurs with much of the damage visibly inflicted upon the development process in poorer countries and countries in transition.

Objective of the Project

To design and introduce integrity pacts in public contracting and train communities to monitor and expose malfeasance. The IP is intended to accomplish two primary objectives:

• To enable companies to abstain from bribing by providing assurances to them that their competitors will also refrain from bribing, and government procurement, privatization or licensing agencies will undertake to prevent corruption , including extortion, by their officials and to follow transparent procedures; and
• To enable governments to reduce the high cost and the distortionary impact of corruption on public procurement, privatization or licensing