Face Technologies set bar high, we shouldn’t lower it

On Tuesday morning, one of the topics that were trending on social media platform Twitter was Face Technologies.

Some drivers who had gone to the Kyambogo premises, the headquarters of the company mandated to issue driving permits, were greeted with a notice that they were closed indefinitely.

This follows months of extensions of Face Technologies’ contracts after government announced that it would not renew the arrangement with the South African company that has been in place since 2003. 

In October last year, government agreed to grant Face Technologies a transitional period to hand over the production of computerised driving permits to the ministry of Works.

 The decision was reached at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, following weeks of heated exchanges between the ministries of Works, which supported the transitional period, and Finance, which opposed it.

Allegations of corruption on how the Uganda Security Printing Company (USPC) was selected to take over the issuing of driving permits notwithstanding, government’s decision to take charge of such sensitive services should be commended.

However, the announcement this week by the ministry of Works that USPC – working in partnership with Veridos, a German security printing company – had failed to take over the project painted a stark picture on why Ugandans have little faith in government-led projects: They are rarely effective and can hardly be counted on to be delivered on time.

Twitter was awash with drivers’ testimonies on how Face Technologies is efficient, with some wondering why something that has proved to work should be broken up in the first place.

 Comparisons such as the ability of one to get a driving permit renewed in a matter of hours versus the weeks and sometimes months it takes to do the same at the passport and national ID offices were many.

Face Technologies contract has again been extended until March 2021. USPC has the opportunity to organise itself to take over a sector some Ugandans have come to rank as epitome of good service delivery.

And as a one Hillary Bamulinde aptly summarised it on Twitter, “Government officially takes over issuance of driving permits from Face Technologies. Hope we don’t go back to scenarios where the gateman can expedite the process for you at a fee like at many other institutions.”

USPC, the ball is in your hands. Face Technologies set the pace, you have the opportunity to prove that we have, as a country, developed the capacity over the years to deliver services effectively.