Two cases of privatisation gone wrong

A quick perusal through two reports by committees of Parliament on how SGS, a Swiss company, acquired a contract to run the mandatory inspection of vehicles will leave you wondering why some officials in the ministry of Works still have their jobs.
The Parliamentary Committee on Physical Infrastructure termed the dealing as “fraudulent” and recommended that the contract of SGS be terminated following gross irregularities discovered in the procurement process.

The MPs recommended that the contract of the Swiss company be terminated for using wrong bidding documents and participating in influence peddling in order to get the contract.
The report also described the SGS vehicle inspection as a commercial venture with exorbitant costs to the vehicle owners. The MPs recommended that vehicle inspection revert to police for fair pricing.
The MPs in addition recommended that further investigations on possible tax evasion and involvement in fraudulent activities by the company be carried out.

Though the minority report signed by nine MPs differs from the main report presented by Luweero Woman MP Lillian Nakate, they all point at one issue –fraud.
For starters, both reports cite the current MP for Rubanda West, who was at the time of signing the contract a commissioner for transport regulation in the Ministry of Works and chairman for the contracts committee, Mr Dennis Sabiiti, as the brain behind the irregularities.

But until now no police investigations have been instituted into the matter, to the best of my knowledge.
When a local radio station in Kampala contacted former Works minister John Byabagambi, he said Mr Sabiiti misled him into this procurement deal. He said Parliament should have invited him to present his side of their story during the inquiry into the matter.

The SGS aside, Ugandans have also been recently treated to another dramatic scene involving Rift Valley Railways and Uganda Railways Corporation, with each entity accusing the other of mismanaging railway sector.

Towards the end of last year, Ms Evelyn Anite, the State minister for Investment, wrote a letter terminating the services of RVR, which action was opposed by her senior colleague in the ministry, Finance minister Matia Kasaija. Mr Kasaija then deliberately reinstated RVR, the company that had been contracted to run railway services, pending the outcome of the government investigations into the matter.
But Kasaija would, just four months later, pen a letter that supported Anite’s earlier move. This came a few months after KCCA executive director Jennifer Musisi had signalled her appreciation of RVR activities, leading to a short-lived partnership between the company and KCCA.

The final termination of RVR services has stabbed the businessmen who were transacting deals with it on assumption that it had full government backing. The traders are crying foul that RVR’s contract was terminated before the company cleared its debts. Some of the traders have since run to court to seek for remedies.

Charles Kateeba, the head of Uganda Railways Corporation, has blamed these traders for dealing with RVR without carrying out due diligence on the firm. This implies that some Ugandan traders are bound to lose business and property following the termination of RVR’s contract.

But if we consider it for a moment, who should be held responsible for this kind of mess? Is it the minister in charge of Investments who has sidelined her major supervisory roles on such entities and instead resorted to drumming up support for Yoweri Museveni’s life presidency project?

Isn’t it time to have a thorough surgery of the privatisation scheme to eliminate partnerships and government concessions which are not benefiting the ordinary Ugandan? What assurances do we have as Ugandans that URC won’t mismanage the railway transport like the case was before hiring it out to RVR?
There are no easy answers. But it would appear that whereas it may be time to review the privatisation policy, it is pertinent to reflect on whether the existing political leaders are the best suited team to do it.

The writer is a journalist based in Kampala.