Members of Parliament (MPs) have asked President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to put on hold the digital number plates project and beseeched him not to be misled, as they are demanding answers to critical questions regarding the procurement process from the company that they claim does not exist.

The MPs said this during the Parliamentary plenary sitting as they discussed matters of national importance on Monday, September 11, 2023.

The MPs maintain that although they do not oppose the concept of digitalized number plates, it is the utilization of a fabricated company with questionable procurement practices which poses a significant concern for the country.

The MPs’ warning comes a day after President Museveni insisted that the digital motor number plates project must go on as planned, saying it will be vital in fighting crime in Uganda.

“Now, I am insisting on the issue of electronic number plates. It will be a very big blow to crime because most of the people move to and from the scene of crime by either a vehicle or a boda-boda,” President Museveni said.

The President made these remarks on Sunday, September 10, 2023, while passing out 2,234 Uganda Prisons Service Officers at Kololo Independence Grounds.

Members of Parliament on the committees of Internal Affairs and Physical Infrastructure discovered that Joint Stock Company Global Security, a Russian company which was contracted to manufacture and provide digital car number plates to Uganda is not registered.

The two committees have been looking through the contracts the government awarded to the Russian company and according to preliminary information, the MPs were shocked to find out that Joint Stock Company Global Security has never been registered in Uganda as per the law. They summoned the Attorney General, and the Minister of Transport and Works to clarify on the matter.

In August 2023, the MPs also turned down the exorbitant amount of money that one is expected to pay to get a digital number plate which is UGX 735,000 yet the old number plate has been costing only UGX 135,000.

In August 2023, while facing the Physical Infrastructure Committee of Parliament about the implementation of the digital number plate project, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen. Kahinda Otafiire told MPs on the committee that a benchmark report by police indicated that the Russian company’s system was not in use in any other country in the world, adding that claims by the company that it will be printing the number plates from Poland is untenable.

The controversy surrounding the digitalized number plates project invited speculation and intrigue, where Gen. Kahinda Otafiire while appearing in the media seemed unsure about the situation hence prompting speculation about potential motives behind the project which the public referred to as an involvement of the Mafia.

Julius Mukunda of the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) emphasized that the established processes like the procurement process, should be adhered to in government projects.

He highlighted the abuse of these processes revealing that the Auditor General’s report of 2022 disclosed a staggering loss of UGX 2.2 trillion due to procurement irregularities.

The idea of introducing an Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS) that offers digital monitoring and tracking system of motor vehicles and motorcycles was suggested by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni during his State of Nation Address in 2021, where he issued an order to the Ministry of Works and Security to install digital number plates as a way of tracking criminals who use motorcycles and vehicles.

The President’s orders followed the assassination attempt on the Minister of Works and Transport Gen Katumba Wamala in June, 2021.