The Physical Infrastructure Committee is reviewing the Intelligent Transport Management System contract, revenue collections and the legal basis of the contractor’s operations ahead of submitting its findings to Parliament.
Parliament’s Committee on Physical Infrastructure is expected to meet President Museveni this week as it finalises an investigation into the Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS) digital number plates project.
The inquiry is examining the contract awarded to Joint Stock Company Global Security, following concerns over contractual irregularities, implementation delays and the legality of revenue collection under the project.
Parliament ordered a comprehensive inquiry and tasked the Auditor General with examining the contractor’s operations and financial transactions.
Auditor General Edward Akol and other officials from his office recently appeared before the committee to present preliminary audit findings, following concerns about oversight of the multi-billion-shilling project.
Committee chairperson Mwine Mpaka said lawmakers had engaged 19 entities as part of the investigation, with the findings expected to inform the committee’s final report.
“We have interacted with 19 entities, and these engagements will directly inform our final report to Parliament,” Mpaka said.
He said Museveni would be the final person consulted because of his role in the project’s conception, adding that the committee wanted to establish whether the original vision had been reflected in the final implementation.
“The President will be the last authority we interact with. As the vision bearer, he ought to have an input on what he originally envisioned for the project versus the actual deliverables,” Mpaka said.
The committee has also raised concerns about how presidential directives were applied during the contracting and implementation stages, as well as provisions in the agreement governing the project.
“We have discovered a misuse of presidential directives to abuse the law in the implementation of the project,” Mpaka said. “There are many mistakes in the contract that make it questionable whether they were not intended.”
The investigation is also examining the management of revenue generated through the sale of digital number plates and the collection of traffic fines, including financial records that the contractor had previously been asked to provide.
Mpaka said the committee had obtained documents relating to three bank accounts held by the company to establish the flow of funds into and out of the entity.
“To further beef up the report over queries on collections, we have secured documentation from three bank accounts of the entity to assess all inflows and outflows,” he said.
Lawmakers are also seeking clarification on whether the contractor was properly registered and gazetted before beginning operations, and the legal basis under which government ministries allowed a private company to collect public revenue.
The findings are expected to inform the committee’s final report, which Mpaka said would be presented to Parliament after the meeting with Museveni.