By Godwin Abedican

Arua
The inspectorate of Government on Monday 25^th July 2022, awarded members of Koboko Civil Society Network (KOSINET) for championing the fight against corruption and monitoring of government projects in the district. The members from ludara, Abuku, Kuluba, Midia, Lobule, Dranya, South division, North division and West division were given certificates, work aprons and others for the services they have offered on behalf of the locals in the district. The community monitoring groups (CMGs) were commended for enhancing community responsibility, transparency and accountability in implementation of the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) 3 and Development Response to Displacement Impact Projects (DRDIP) projects in the district.

While awarding the members, the deputy inspectorate of government Dr. Achan Patricia Okiria, urged the members to relentlessly lead in the fight against corruption adding that they are the immediate persons who suffer the effects of corruption. “We have decided to refocus the war against corruption by taking the war against corruption to the people because it’s the ordinary person who is a victim of corruption. The citizen is that person who goes to the hospital and finds the drugs stolen and can’t get treatment for him or herself, it’s the citizen who goes to school and find the teachers are not there yet the IG can’t be in all those places. So it becomes very necessary to have the community monitoring groups in place,” Dr. Acan.

Mambo Ashraf, the district chairperson for koboko says, having the community monitoring groups in place has helped unearth a lot of issues that have been going on about government programs. He added that, following the works done by the CMGs as the local government they have been able to intervene to save some government projects or enforce monitoring to ensure that the projects are effectively implemented.

However, the mayor Koboko Municipality, Dr. Sanya Wilson faults the IG for not taking keen interest in government projects where there are always conflicts of interest. Koboko Civil society Network (KOCINET) is an umbrella organization of Civil society Organizations operating in Koboko district. It was created in 2005 and registered with the National NGO bureau on 16^th June 2006 with registration number S5914/6465. KOCINET has been in partnership with the inspectorate under Memorandum of Understanding agreements since 2018.