LONDON — President Yoweri Museveni has urged investors to report government officials who seek bribes, saying punitive action will be taken against those found guilty.
“We have launched a campaign against the corrupt. It is easy to root out this evil. The public hates them. All we need are facts. We are discouraging anyone who pays bribes. Don’t deal with crooks,” said the President.
President Museveni made the call in London as he addressed leaders of over 70 British companies at the UK-Uganda Business Forum at the Double Tree Hilton Hotel in Central London.
The President is in London on a four-day official visit where he took part in the inaugural UK-Africa Investment Summit.
The business forum was organised by the Uganda High Commission, supported by Lord Dolar Popat, the UK Trade Envoy to Uganda.
Making a case for Uganda as an ideal investment destination, the President said corruption, especially by government officials, had become a “bottleneck” to development and the whip was being cracked.
Appealing to investors to support the government in stemming the vice, the President said the identities of the whistleblowers would be protected if they felt threatened.
“We are suppressing corruption but we need facts to totally eliminate it. Please notify me; let’s lay traps for them. We shall protect your identities, you can speak to your high commissioner who will get to me,” he said.
Without divulging details, the President said he had stopped award of contracts to investors thought to have paid bribes to government officials in a project involving a dam and the Jinja Expressway
