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Digital plates: Govt to lose billions in unpaid traffic fines

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Digital number plates. PHOTO/FILE/HANDOUT 

The government could lose billions of shillings in outstanding traffic fines once defaulters replace their old licence number plates with digital ones. Sources from ministries directly linked to the Express Penalty Scheme (EPS) told this newspaper that the motorists with unpaid fines, who have replaced the old number plates with digital ones, cannot be traced in the police’s old data system.

“The government is going to lose a lot of money in unpaid EPS fines. There hasn’t been a synchronisation of old EPS fine data with the new digital number plates. Once a vehicle with outstanding fines gets a digital number plate, traffic officers are unable to know its EPS fine history because that data wasn’t entered in police systems,” a source said.

The EPS for road traffic offenders was introduced by the Ministry of Works and Transport in 2002 as an alternative way to penalise errant motorists. Last year, the police issued fines under EPS valued at Shs41.4b. In the same period, Shs40b was paid in EPS tickets.

According to the Auditor General’s report for 2022, there were 528,027 unpaid EPS tickets valued at more than Shs100b for just three financial years. The Auditor General tasked the police to ensure that the outstanding EPS funds are collected. Although the police fine an errant driver, they also record the licence plateof the vehicle for easy tracking. The police often rely on the vehicle licence number plate to track down defaulters.

“The vehicle number plate has been key in the collection of EPS fines. You find that one motor vehicle was drivenby many drivers who are fined. Once a vehicle with unpaid fines is detected, it is impounded until all fines are paid,” the source said. A source said with the replacement of the licence number plates, the traffic officers will have to rely on details on the driving permits, which is time-consum[1]ing and causes a lot of inconveniences to motorists. The sources said once a vehicle with unpaid EPS fines replaces the old plate with a new digital system, the officers on the road can’t know.

“For instance, many government vehicles replaced their old number plateswith digital number plates. We know some vehicles that had unpaid EPS tickets, but when you enter their newly acquired digital number plate in our EPS tracking system, it shows that they have no unpaid fines,” a source said.

Police speak

The spokesperson of the Uganda Police Force, Mr Kituuma Rusoke, confirmed that old EPS data hasn’t yet been synchronised with the digital system. “It is true that the system isn’t yet upgraded and synchronised. It is still work in progress. The transition [of old data] isn’t yet complete. …However, the digital system hasn’t been rolled out for private vehicles replacing old plates so many cars are still using the old system,” he said.

Mr Rusoke said a police team is in touch with the Ministry of Works and Transport to ensure that all the issues are resolved. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Works and Transport, Ms Susan Katai[1]ke, said the police team raised the challenges of tracking EPS defaulters once they (motorists) get digital number plate replacements.

“We have had a conversation about it. The project management is looking for a way to resolve it,” she said. The police team has requested the Works ministry to ensure that all the motorists replacing the old plates clear the outstanding fines first before get[1]ting digital plates. However, Ms Kataike said it isn’t a requirement to first clear outstanding EPS fines before getting a digital number plate.

BACKGROUND

Growing trend

The government has been losing billions of money whenever there is a change of means of collecting EPS fines. When the police transited from manual issuance of EPS tickets to electronic, the investigators found out that motorists gave police forged bank receipts that they used to clear them from the debtors’ list. Police forfeited most of the outstanding fines after several protests from motorists. Similar fraud was detected when the government switched the payment system from the police accounts to the Uganda Revenue Authority