Ministry, army fight over ID deal

It was further reported that UPDF would do much of the work of capturing and processing the data.

More than a year after the collapse of the national ID project and subsequent inquiries into allegations of corruption, two government ministries are now fighting over the revival and management of the multi-billion project.
Last week, the state-owned newspaper, (New Vision) reported that the Defence Ministry wanted to take over the botched project. The paper quoted Army spokesperson Felix Kulayigye as saying, the UPDF was waiting for a legal instrument from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to start work.
It was further reported that UPDF would do much of the work of capturing and processing the data.

“We shall capture data of every individual countrywide and make for them IDs. We introduced the Integrated Resource Management System under which we shall capture data,” Col. Kulayigye said.

However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is in charge of the project, has since distanced itself from such reports, insisting that issuing IDs is the mandate of the ministry.

“We are not aware of the allegations that the Ministry of Defence has taken over the project. The Internal Affairs is still spearheading policy and technical implementation of the project,” Mr James Baba, the state minister for Internal Affairs, said in a January 2 statement:
However, Col. Kulayigye said the UPDF would come in to reinforce Internal Affairs and not take on the whole project: “There was no coordination on our part.”

According to the statement, the UPDF will be part of the key stakeholders; Electoral Commission and the National Information Technology Authority. The statement, however, eliminates the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), which had been part of the first target key stakeholders.

Mr Baba said Ubos would join at the third stage of establishing the data bank together with NITA (U). “We have included the UPDF to majorly help us with extra manpower.”

Deal gone soar
In March 2010, the government controversially procured Muhlbauer Technology, a German firm, at 64.2m Euros (about Shs230.9b) to supply necessary technology and other related services for the National Security Information System, which was being handled by Internal Affairs.

The firm claimed that they had in a year produced at least 400 IDs of the over 34 million Ugandans, one of them being for the President and Prime Minister and other top government officials. However, the IDs given to some MPs, had mistakes.

“The project is back on course and we are committed to delivering its planned objectives in time for the 2016 polls,” Mr Baba said.
After a Parliament probe into the ruin that characterised the project, the legislators concluded that hefty sums of money had been lost after the project was mismanaged.

The MPs also noted that it was the President, who in 2009, had issued a directive to then Internal Affairs minister Kirunda Kivenjinja to co-ordinate the project and single source the service provider amid protests from the PPDA.

MPs recommended that Mr Kivenjinja and his former ICT counterpart Alintuma Nsabu be penalised for messing up an originally good idea of identifying all Ugandans. Nothing has, however, since been done.
snaturinda@ug.nationmedia.com