There are several rationales for the enactment and enforcement of anti-corruption legislation. These include protection of commercial business interests from extortion by corrupt government officials, as a part of the ongoing fight against terrorism and leveling the playing field for companies that play by the rules. But in the case of Uganda, another rationale is foreign government, where corruption was so rife, it was scaring away investors from putting money into the country.
Uganda’s finance minister Matia Kasaija said in a recent report that corruption is “a killer” when it comes to promoting investment. It is not too surprising with the country having a score of 25 on the 2016 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index and coming in at number 151 out of 176 countries listed. Part of the problem is Uganda’s byzantine licensing and registration requirements from everything to register to do business in the country to export your products out of the country. When you have such long processes, it is usually because many regulators have their collective hands out to help “move things along.”
