Govt to probe, punish leakers of confidential state documents

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The Government has announced new investigations to bring to book people found guilty of leaking to public state confidential documents.

Information minister Dr Chris Baryomunsi told journalists on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, that the leaks, especially done through social media, are of great concern.

"It is wrong, it is unethical and unlawful for someone to just leak government documents. I sound this warning to civil servants to desist from that unacceptable behaviour because they [documents] get into the hands of people that should not be accessing them," he said.

He was speaking at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala to update the country on the Cabinet resolutions of the week.

Containment measures

He said the Government is instituting several measures to curtail the practice and these will also help in bringing to book people who write and circulate fake letters.

He added that people who attend Cabinet and leak Cabinet confidential information will also be affected.

According to him, they have noted that due to the leaks, even some online papers are sometimes obtaining information from the Cabinet.

He said some of the information from Cabinet is reported incorrectly and this sometimes ends up on order paper and Parliament debates it as if it were true, which causes communication confusion.

Investigation

"Whether it is Cabinet members (ministers) or civil servants, we are investigating to establish who exactly gets excited by Cabinet proceedings and leaks protected information to non-Cabinet members," he said.

Baryomunsi added that Cabinet proceedings are very sensitive and reporting about its proceedings can do a lot of bad.

"There is a lot of indiscipline and gross abuse within public service and also in the citizenry. We need order when it comes to communication," he said, adding that the matter is being investigated by his ministry in conjunction with the security ministry.

Appeal

He said if nothing is done, the miscommunication may end up affecting genuine government documents.

Amidst the challenges, he urged the media to endeavour to cross-check with the Government to ensure that they don't become conveyors of fake news as the Government puts in place several safety measures to ensure they cure the disease.