MPs ‘still in the dark’  on car tracking project

Members of Parliament who attended a three-day retreat to receive briefings about the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System left without receiving the information they needed to reassure them about the integrity of the project, an MP on the team said on Monday.
 MP Nathan Byanyima (Bukanga North – NRM) who was one of the legislators whose concerns about the contract led Parliament to look closely into the matter, was responding to concerns exclusively first raised in this newspaper about the slow progress of the project.
 “We went to Entebbe as a committee for three nights. We were there but nothing came out,” Mr Byanyima said. “Nobody came to take us through, even Hon. Jim Muhwezi, the [Security] minister, nor people from the President’s Office, the security agencies; none of them took the trouble to come and brief us on the progress or what was going to be done.”

 This newspaper reported on Monday that with only six weeks to the planned rolling out of the flagship security system, key milestones had not been met including the importation of new motor vehicle registration plates with enhanced security features, setting up of installation centres, building of a factory in Uganda to manufacture the plates, hiring of staff, and informing the public about the impending changes. The paper also reported that a team that travelled to Russia was unable to see and verify the new number plates that are set to be issued from July 1.

 Mr Byanyima told Monitor  that an environment of secrecy and fear around the project could be to blame. “It is even risky to make a comment,” he said. “Me what I have always said is do due diligence. You know when you don’t see people bringing out the due diligence to the committee Members of Parliament, then you increase all our suspicions. 
 “So the way they are keeping the information secret to themselves then that means there is something fishy. Equally all the people who have briefed the president fear him…I have not seen anybody come out to convince both committees of Parliament on what is going on. For me I am not comfortable with the whole arrangement.” 
 Tororo District Woman MP Sarah Opendi, who first called for parliamentary scrutiny of the project, said she would comment after the MP’s findings are tabled before Parliament.
 “I am waiting for the minority report which I have not seen,” she said. “I know there will be a minority report, I have seen the majority report. I think let’s wait for Parliament to receive the reports.”

 Government contracted Joint Stock Company Global Security, a Russian firm, to develop the ITMS allow law enforcement agencies to detect, prevent and solve crimes committed with the use of motor vehicles and motorcycles. 
 Under the project, all new vehicles registered in Uganda from July 1 should receive new number plates with an embedded chip that can be read, identified and tracked by CCTV cameras. Each car is also supposed to be installed with a tracking device that law enforcement agencies can use to zero down on traffic offenders and other criminals.
 “The whole essence of the project is that different components are installed to create a security system,” an MP who is privy to the ITMS contract, but who asked not to be named in order to speak freely, told this newspaper.

 “If you ask Ugandans to pay money for new number plates but when you have not installed the cameras to read them, or put in the trackers, then you are taking money from people but not improving their safety, yet that is the basis for the whole project. It is important that we get it right so that the President’s objective of smarter law enforcement is realised.”
 In February this newspaper reported that car owners would pay Shs735,000 for the new security-enhanced motor vehicle number plates. New government vehicles were supposed to start receiving the plates on March 1 but that deadline was missed. 
It remains unclear whether the July 1, 2023, start date for installation on private vehicles will be met, either. Officials from the Security Ministry and the Works and Transport ministries have been contacted for comment.