Govt bureaucracy delays fibre internet backbone

Government has failed to realise the interlink programme six years after it was started.

What you need to know:

Delayed completion. The project started six years ago has not been completed due to a number of issues including bureaucracy.

The completion of the government’s National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure, an interlink of government ministries, departments and agencies, will have to wait up to next year, Daily Monitor can reveal.

The delay, likely to affect efficient service delivery within government departments, is a result of bureaucratic tendencies, which according to Huawei Technologies has frustrated the project’s completion.

While launching the project’s second phase in Busia on Wednesday, Mr James Mulebeke, the Huawei country director, said the project has been delayed due to government’s failure to release funds on time.

He said: “The funds come in bits, thus we do the work and when government gives us funds.”

The Shs265 billion project that started six years ago has however, failed to take off due to a number of contractual problems, including government bureaucracy, delayed release of funds and unverified allegations of substandard works and cables.

However, the project that was presumed to be completed earlier than it has taken is just in its second phase, six years after its initiation.

The third phase, which has not yet set off might be completed by next year and must be accomplished for the public to benefit from the planned national transmission infrastructure.

Recently the parliamentary ICT Committee criticised Huawei for the untimely fulfillment of contractual obligations, including delayed completion of the project and doing substandard works.

However, Mr Mulebeke told Daily Monitor that cables that were laid had been tested and found to be of acceptable standards.

He explained that the laid cables (G652) are equally good contrary to allegations of the company laying substandard cables.

The government in 2008 under the National Information Technology Authority – Uganda set out an aggressive plan to establish a National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure and related e-government Infrastructure throughout the country.

The project funded through a concession loan from China repayable in 20 years, was entrusted to Huawei Technologies, a Chinese International Company that signed a contract with government to lay fibre cables and transmission centres.