Early last year, the Uganda government contracted a company called SGS to carry out mandatory motor vehicle inspection.

The contract covers all vehicular equipment from motorcycles, cars, dual-purpose vehicles, and passenger and goods vehicles of diverse specifications. Among the elements to be inspected are emissions, brakes, suspension, headlamps, alignment/sideslip, electrical systems and others.

This is a good development towards improving the quality and standard of vehicles on our roads and is part of the proactive initiatives to reduce on road accidents resulting from faulty vehicles.

These good intentions, however, mask an intricate policy implementation approach that is not only exploitative of vehicle owners and operators but is an extractive arrangement structured around monopolistic interests.

This contract gives one company rights over motor vehicle inspection services for the next five years. Chances are that the country will be perpetually locked onto SGS and the likely consequences are that inspection fees will continuously rise.

This is especially because vehicle owners, under the government-SGS contract, have been stripped of the power to negotiate prices as well as being denied the possibility of alternative choice.

The question is: why did we not contract two or three companies?

The second issue is that SGS will extract from all vehicle owners (and by extension the local economy) a specified sum of money in Uganda shillings and remit the same in hard currencies to their shareholders outside Uganda. At the end of the five years, Uganda will neither have domestic capacity to inspect motor vehicles nor retain the competitive environment to attract another company for similar services.

Third, Uganda does not have the relevant law and institutional framework to regulate competition.

Accordingly, monopolistic contracts such as these enjoy a free rein over consumers without mitigating measures. How, for example, was the inspection fee rate arrived at?

What are the cost elements that were considered before the fees were set? What are the redress mechanisms within the contract for an aggrieved motor vehicle owner? If SGS deems a vehicle to have failed the test, where else can vehicle owners got to cross check or validate the verdict of SGS?

Where is the ministry of works or the national roads authority in all this? What if Unra had become the monopoly during the first five years? 

Also, the vehicle inspectorate department of Uganda police would have been reorganized, revamped and reequipped with both human and technical capacity over a couple of years for the same purpose too.

Sam Kuloba Watasa,
+256 712 644 655.

What I remember of 2016

This year 2016, I remember the controversial presidential elections that were so clumsy and exaggerated that the police/military forces had to intervene directly to stop any trouble. Even courts of law could not be relied on to overturn the fraud.

The Constitution gives an aggrieved parliamentary candidate 30 days within which to petition court contesting an election. However, one presidential candidate, who is supposed to collect evidence from 281 constituencies, is given less time. To make matters worse, one candidate was under house arrest for the entire time under which one is expected to petition.

I also remember the bodies floating in Kasese district, live bullets in Kampala claiming Muslim clerics. I remember strong ladies and gentlemen in Makerere University crying after the closure of the institution (once referred to as the Harvard of Africa).

I remember our mothers and fathers battered by the police on Kampala streets because of their choice to support an opposition candidate.

I remember the ‘scientific’ death of prominent people attributed to stroke, high blood pressure, use of drugs, etc). I remember the shootings at Lugogo mall where a one Matthew Kanyamunyu allegedly shot dead Kenneth Akena.

One statement that I can make and I believe it very firmly is: “He who lives by the sword will die by the sword”.

As we enter 2017, I urge people everywhere to pray that God guides us, to pray that justice will be done and righteousness will stand.

Marvin Kushaba,
0705873431.

Happy 2017 to all

This has been an eventful year, involving elections, tragedies and some achievements such us Uganda Cranes qualifying for the African Nations Cup after 38 years.

The same can be said on personal levels. We should all thank God for the gift of life and pray that 2017 comes with more blessings.

There is nothing that beats hard work and prayer. We can complain about poor governance and harsh conditions but hard work can take us through them.
Another important aspect to cherish is family.

The value of humanness has been deteriorating in the past years. We need to rediscover this and others that make us live in harmony.

Clare Najjemba,
Rakai.

Shs 7bn is enough for LC elections

Information coming from the secretary to the treasury, Keith Muhakanizi, that only Shs 7bn out of the estimated Shs 37.4bn is available for conducting LC-I and LC-II elections should be welcomed with open hands.

If well utilized, this money is enough to conduct modest elections in the 57,842 villages and 7,842 parishes across the country.

In December, as an elder in Ggaba parish, I helped market vendors to use their little money and hold elections because KCCA, whose budget was slashed by Shs 150bn, could not facilitate them.

Each contestant contributed between Shs 100,000 and Shs 250,000 (for the chairmanship post) before they could be nominated and, indeed, KCCA spent no penny. Today, all vendors are happy with their new leadership.

This yardstick can be borrowed for the local council elections whereby each contestant for the position of village chairmanship pays a nonrefundable fee of Shs 10,000 in rural areas and Shs 20,000 in urban centres.

This money, if added to the Shs 7 billion available, can be used to conduct secret, moderate elections using cheap ballot papers printed at either Uganda Printery or  other private service providers.

Other items such as papers, exercise books and pens can be supplied by our local factories for promotional purposes. I am sure if used sparingly, we can even save part of the Shs 7bn.

Spending 15 years without electing local council  officials is a violation of Article 181(4) of the Constitution which says that all local government councils shall be elected every five years.

Think about it!

Siraje Lubulwa,
Kampala.

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