IGG clears UBC’s digital television deal
IGG Irene Mulyagonja
KAMPALA- The Inspector General of Government, Ms Irene Mulyagonja, has cleared the proposed leasing of the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) and radio network to a Chinese firm, Star Software Technology Company Limited.
Justice Mulyagonja in letter dated July 27 to the of Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) managing director Winston Agaba, said the embattled public broadcaster is allowed to negotiate the contract for the supply, installation, and financing of the DTT network with the bidder to enable service delivery since due diligence had been carried.
Authorisation
“UBC proceeds to negotiate the contract with the bidder in accordance with section 26 of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Act, 2015,” the IGG wrote.
The clearance followed an inquiry into the proposed deal after a whistleblower reported that there were irregularities in the awarding of the contract to Star Software Technology Company Limited, a firm affiliated to pay Tv provider Star Times Company.
The Shs76b deal, which provoked jitters among industry players, grants the Chinese company a concession basis control of the country’s digital distribution network for a period of 10 years. The network is currently operated by Signet, a subsidiary of UBC that was specifically established to broadcast and distribute DTT signals.
In the agreement, Star Times will also take over the main Network Operation Centre (NOC) at Kololo, and installing, financing and operating the 28 DTT sites upcountry; however, only 18 have since been installed and Signet needs to lease the rest over lack of money to operate and maintain the infrastructure.
UBC’s public relations officer Rafsanjan Tatya explained that the rationale to go for the PPP was due to lack of funds by government for this project.
“The anticipated additional investment by the concessionaire for this project is now quoted at Shs50b. The government doesn’t have that money now,” he noted.
“Given that Signet is a baby of UBC and UBC is a child of government, it follows therefore that when government says they don’t have the money to accomplish the project it simply means Signet doesn’t have the financial capacity to run this network.”
Star Software will recoup its money over the period through charging local Tv stations a fee of Shs8m per month.
However, sources familiar with the matter told Daily Monitor that the company was seeking to renegotiate the fee from Shs8m to at least Shs10m for the end-gain to make economic sense.
This, however, was protested by some Tv station managers who are opposed to Star Times taking over the country’s DTT on grounds of sovereignity.
