My one-week tour of Mombasa Port in Kenya made me notice that corruption has really built tough roots across the East African countries.
I sat and observed the ugly things happening at the port, and my appeal goes to the Presidents of Uganda, South Sudan, DRC, Burundi, and Rwanda to take an interest in addressing corruption taking place at the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA), which is funded by our taxpayers’ money in the six member states.
The Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority is an intergovernmental organisation that coordinates transport infrastructure, trade, and logistics along the Northern Corridor in East and Central Africa.
Its core value is to oversee agreements and manage the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Agreement (NCTTA), first signed in 1985 and revised in 2007.
It also connects landlocked nations like the Kenya Port of Mombasa to landlocked hinterland countries and global markets, coordinates road networks, railways, inland waterways, pipelines, and maritime port facilities.
The member states contribute to the operations of the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority through assessed financial contributions, direct budget allocations, or dedicated levies. Their contribution is also through direct payments and levies. Member countries contribute funds directly to the Permanent Secretariat or through mechanisms where designated charges and transit levies are collected and transferred to the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority. Part of this money collected is later distributed to the member states.
However, what is happening is that the formation of the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority, based at Mombasa Port, has turned into an area of eating by a few corrupt officials.
I noticed that the leadership element within the secretariat has turned the institution into an enclave of personal advantage, marginalising state-appointed technical officers who demand transparent accountability.
What I learnt from this port is that the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority has lost taxpayers’ money of over USD 12 million in a span of a year to corrupt individuals deployed by the six member states.
To make things worse, a section of members of the executive and the policy oversight organs have abdicated their watchdog duties, trading oversight leverage for patronage and per diems.
The Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority was formed by East African member states to collect revenue on behalf of the East African states, whereby each country has employed its technical staff there.
Uganda, being a transit country, also employs workers as other countries do. But what surprised me to learn is that Uganda loses USD 1.5 million every year. When you put together the total money that other member states lose each year, it comes to a tune of USD 12 million per year.
The people who later pick this money from their hidden channels or jackpot are the Permanent Secretaries in the Ministry of Works and Transport and their member executives, and they share it among themselves without being noticed due to a lack of policies where it involves auditors.
What amused me is that even the Uganda Revenue Authority is not aware of this money. There are no auditors to audit this, leaving the officials to spend this money, which is meant for running the activities of the organisation, into their pockets.
This has stalled integration goals. Financial leakages directly degrade the authority’s capacity to eliminate non-tariff barriers, harmonise axle load limits, and ease cross-border transit blockades.
As an East African citizen, I call upon the heads of member states to take action by constituting a joint multi-state forensic audit into the financial accounts, project funding, and procurement portfolios of the Permanent Secretariat.
Otherwise, the purpose of creating the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority will never be realised.
The writer is a senior veteran journalist.
