MPs want gov’t to resolve SGS contract saga

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of Parliament have asked the government to expedite resolving the SGS contract saga.

In March 2015, Societe Generale De Surveillance (SGS) signed a 12.5-million-dollar contract with the government to carry out routine vehicle inspection to keep off the road vehicles in poor mechanical condition.

However, government has been considering cancelling the contract because of bribery, influence peddling, high inspection fees, ownership of SGS and the lack of clarity on how the company would hand over to the government when its exclusive five year contract expires.

While MPs wanted the government to take over the vehicle inspection project, the Attorney General warned that terminating the contract would cost government more than enough and preferred to re-negotiate the contract a fresh five-year contract.

On Tuesday, Members of Parliament on the physical infrastructure committee were supposed to meet a team from the Ministry of Works, Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA), the Attorney General William Byaruhanga and the former AG Mwesigwa Rukutana, but none showed up except their representatives.

This forced the committee headed by Robert Kafeero Ssekitoleko to send away the officials.

According to Kafeero, before lifting the ban on public transport, the government wanted the taxis to go through mandatory inspection but this couldn’t be done due to the contract saga.

Kafeero says that if the government does not resolve the SGS contract, the process might stall. He says as Parliament, they hope to put in their best to rectify the matter but this has to come with interest from the government.

There are suggestions that the vehicle inspection should go back to the Uganda Police.

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