Davis Weddi
1 July 2009
Kampala — The outgoing chairperson of the Parliament's committee on ICT, Edward Baliddawa, has raised questions about the cost of the national ICT backbone infrastructure project.
Baliddawa raised the questions earlier this week in a handover brief to the new chairperson, Nathan Igeme Nabeta.
Baliddawa's brief raised queries regarding the total cost of the project. He indicated that Rwanda is carrying out a similar project to lay 2,300 km of fibre cable at a cost of $38 million.
In contrast, Uganda's fibre projected to span 2,130 km will cost $106 million, or three times more.
The committee has asked for an audit of the work so far completed on the first phase of the project, he noted.
Baliddawa also wonders why the Rwandan equivalent is scheduled to be completed in a period of one year, thus by the end of 2009, while Uganda's project, that started over a year ago, is still ongoing.
"Of course it is known that our project has some extras, but the question to be answered is how much benefit that will bring to the ordinary citizen who will be responsible for paying back most of this loan," he noted.
The backbone project is intended to ensure that high bandwidth data connectivity is available in all major towns of Uganda at a reasonable cost.
Already the first phase of the project has seen errors and challenges during installation and the ministry badly wants the involvement of local authorities as they extend the fibre.
Among other issues raised was an offer by Huawei Technologies to donate $2m to Uganda in communication equipment to enhance ICT use in the country.
Huawei Technologies is the Chinese company responsible for implementing the backbone project in Uganda.
According to Baliddawa, since the generous offer was made in Beijing, China, no effort had been made by the ICT ministry to follow up on it.
The Parliament passed a request by the Government to borrow $61m from the Chinese Exim Bank for the implementation of the second and third phase of the project.
However, the Committee expressed concern that the first phase, worth $30m, had been completed but the results left a lot to be desired.
The handover brief also mentioned the need of tabling cyber laws before Parliament, noting that the committee had not yet started considering the bills. These include the Electronic Transaction Bill, the Electronic Signatures Bill, and the Computer Misuse Bill.
On distribution of computers to schools, the report mentions that the Ministry of ICT is working on the establishment of computer labs in government aided secondary schools.
But the committee points out that the Ministry has consistently left out area MPs in the process of identifying beneficiary schools, the deployment and commissioning of these labs.
"Hence there has been no ownership of this initiative which may undermine the sustenance of these labs in the schools."
The brief further mentions a security communication system, called TETRA, valued at $5million, that was acquired under the Commonwealth preparatory arrangement.
TETRA was meant to help the security organs in the country to enhance their operations during the Commonwealth Heads of States meeting in Kampala.
But Baliddawa says the committee had received information that the TETRA system does not function as was required.
However, the New Vision has established from the Ministry of ICT that the system is in operation and being used by the Police and the ministries responsible for defence and security. It was unable to establish what exactly it is used for.
The brief also urges the new chairperson to continue pursuing the installation of an Intelligence Network System in order to maximise the collection of taxes by both URA and Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).
Nabeta was also urged to follow up on the digitisation of bills and ministerial statements to Parliament in order to enable a wider public to actively and constructively participate in the consultations.
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