Political party finance

ACFIM monitors the enforcement of and compliance to political finance provisions in the Political Parties and Organizations Act, 2005 (as amended). Particularly, emphasis is put on the provisions of public funding to political parties, and submission of annual returns including the copies of audit report. Findings are used to engage policy makers on feasible reforms. ACFIM’s cardinal object is to promote transparency and accountability in financial management within political parties.

Election campaign finance

During the election period, ACFIM conducts long-term monitoring of campaign spending, documenting and quantifying the scale of spending pb political parties and candidates on campaign activities. Reports and policy papers are produced with feasible recommendations, which are used to engage policy makers in the ministry of justice and constitutional affairs, and Parliament among others for feasible reforms.

Political corruption and state capture

ACFIM conducts empirical studies to understand the scale and correlation between political corruption and state capture, and use findings to engage policy makers on key recommendations. One example is the study titled: Commercialisation of Politics and Captivity of State Institutions in Uganda.

https://www.dgf.ug/sites/default/files/rescrc/Unregulated_Campaign_Spending.pdf

Political & electoral accountability

Elections are intended to be used by voters to hold the political party in power and political leaders accountable for certain policy decisions. This is premised on the principle that elections provide an opportunity for citizens to vote out the leaders that have not served citizens’ interests and reward those who have served well by voting them back into office. In this regard, ACFIM strives to mobilise the electorate to hold elected leaders accountable to their campaign promises and office mandate. This feeds directly into ACFIM’s vision of political leaders that are responsive and accountable to citizens.

The Political Finance in Africa Index (PFI)

The Political Finance in Africa Index (PFI) is the first of its kind in Africa. It is informed by analysis of the political finance legal and institutional frameworks in different African countries and homegrown African experiences. These constitute the basis for scoring and ranking.

The goal of the PFI is to awaken African countries and Africans in general to the epidemic of monetised and commercialised politics with a view of contributing towards building robust political finance regulatory frameworks.

The Political Finance Academy (PFA)

The political finance academy (PFA) is a virtual training center for political party leaders and administration staff, aspiring political candidates, civil society actors, development partners, researchers and other persons that seek to deepen their understanding of the systems, procedures and mechanisms for financing, monitoring and researching on money politics. PFA designs and operationalizes tools for political parties to improve their fundraising and financial management systems; best practices in managing campaign finance in the context of monetized and commercialized politics; tool-set for donors intending to develop political finance interventions; and civic groups (CSOs) intending to develop campaign finance monitoring programmes.