Museveni handpicked Russian firm for vehicle tracker deal

President Museveni identified the phantom Russian company, M/s Joint Stock Company Global Security, for the controversial digitally-surveilled number plates deal, the Office of the President permanent secretary, Mr Yunus Kakande told court.

In his affidavit dated August 6 filed as response to the suit filed by Legal Brains Trust, Mr Kakande also revealed that in December 2018, a technical committee comprising of among others officials from the UPDF’s National Enterprise Corporation, and the Ministry of Security conducted due diligence on the company and concluded that it had capacity to undertake the project.

Subsequently, on March 22, 2019 the government and Russian company signed a Memorandum of Understanding. This culminated into the agreement signed on July 23 providing for the Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS)—digital monitoring and tracking system of motor vehicles and motorcycles in the country “through real time control and monitoring center.”

“I know that M/s Joint Stock Company Global Security has the technical and financial capacity to undertake the project and that due diligence was carried out before selection of the company,” Mr Kakande stated.
He also indicated that the deal falls out of scope of local procurement laws.

Legal Brains Trust, a non-profit that champions for rule of law, late last month sued the government in the High Court challenging the illegality of government’s plan of mounting of digital beacons or Global Positioning System (GPS) trackers on all automobiles in the country, in the absence of safeguards for protecting privacy and data belonging to people with no apparent connection to criminality or terrorism.

However, in the affidavit, Mr Kakande under whose docket falls Ministry of Security, indicated that ITMS is not a breach of the right to privacy, and any derogation of the rights to privacy that it may pose is demonstrably justifiable under the law.

Meanwhile, last Friday Legal Brains Trust tasked the Office of the President to file as evidence among others, the specific record through which President Museveni identified the Russian company, minutes of the said technical committee that conducted due diligence, report of due diligence detailing the company’s financial and technical competence, and both the MoU signed in 2019 and agreement signed last month.

It emerged last month that the Russian company, which has no online presence nor digital footprint to establish its prior related experience, was sued by multiple companies at the Moscow Arbitration for bankruptcy between 2019 and 2020.

AG  reacts
When contacted in regards to the matter, Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, the government’s legal advisor, challenged journalists to produce the evidence of insolvency against the company while Security minister Jim Muhwezi who witnessed the signing of the MoU has since distanced himself from having initiated the deal as he is new in office.