Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba has raised concern over alleged bribery of Local Council One (LC1) chairpersons by wealthy individuals seeking to influence the verification of land title applications.
Nabakooba said the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development had revised guidelines for processing special certificates of title, introducing additional checks to reduce the risk of fraudulent applications and protect legitimate landowners.
Under the revised procedures, ministry officers handling applications will obtain verification reports directly from LC1 chairpersons and their committees instead of relying on reports submitted by applicants.
“The committee letter will be got by the officers, not the applicants. The officers, when they are doing their work, have to ask the LC1 and his committee to make a report of their findings,” Nabakooba said.
The change is intended to limit opportunities for applicants to influence the local verification process or submit reports that misrepresent the circumstances surrounding a piece of land.
LC1 committees can provide information about land ownership, occupation and competing claims within their areas. However, where their findings are compromised, the resulting reports could undermine the integrity of subsequent decisions by land registration authorities.
Nabakooba said local verification would not be the only safeguard. Ministry officers would also visit the land to establish whether the information in the application corresponds with the situation on the ground.
The ministry has also opted to use government surveyors to verify land information in special certificate applications, rather than relying entirely on privately contracted survey services.
Nabakooba said the arrangement would strengthen accountability by making it possible to hold public officers responsible if their findings contradict the actual situation on the land.
“People have to be held accountable for their actions. If you go on the ground and you are a district staff surveyor or a Ministry of Lands surveyor, and you give a report contrary to what is on the ground, we can hold you accountable,” she said.
The minister added that district staff surveyors are supervised by the ministry’s zonal offices and the Commissioner for Surveys and Mapping, providing additional oversight in the verification process.
The revised guidelines are part of wider efforts to strengthen due diligence before special certificates of title are issued. Such certificates may be sought when a duplicate title has been lost, destroyed or obliterated, subject to the requirements of the law.
The ministry has also outlined plans for ground investigations, public notices and wider consultation with stakeholders as it works towards translating the guidelines into regulations under the Registration of Titles Act.
The measures are intended to give people who may have an interest in the land an opportunity to raise objections before a special certificate is issued, while strengthening the reliability of information used in land registration decisions.