Abstract |
The overall objective of the study was to establish the determinants of corruption at district levels in Uganda. Very little was known about factors that would obviously be correlated with corruption levels which actually explains corruption variation among districts in Uganda. The relevant analytical problem is not the harmfulness of corruption but why a similar political system, that is, decentralized system, fosters different levels of corruption. We cannot discern any useful lessons from the literature on corruption so long as the determinants of corruption are not clearly identified. Multiple regressions were used to analyze the data, with variables capturing a broad range of theoretical plausible determinants included simultaneously in the hope of reducing omitted variable bias. This study used secondary data to test the hypothesis that higher corruption levels are associated with low levels of education, a lower ratio of local revenue to total expenditure, a lower income and presence of Inspector General of Government regional office. The regression results show that the presence of Inspector of Government regional office, urban population ratio and headcount poverty ratio are correlated with reported corruption cases. The presence of Inspector General of Government regional offices is confirmed to be strongly associated with reported corruption cases. To fight corruption in Uganda there is need to open up Inspector General of Government offices at each district in the country.
|