Parliament to procure 84 cars for Commonwealth Conference

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament has started the procurement of 84 vehicles to be used during the forthcoming Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC).

The conference, one of the largest annual gatherings of Commonwealth Parliamentarians, will take place from 22 to 29 September 2019 at Speke Resort, Munyonyo. It will bring together more than 500 delegates.

The cars will be used to transport the delegates to and from the Airports, to their hotels, to the conference venues and to different tourist destinations in the country.

According to some bid documents URN has seen, some of the vehicles are lead Vehicles, Escort Vehicles, executive luxury coach buses, Mercedes Benz V Classes among others.

M/S Kampala Motors Limited will for instance supply lead cars through Direct Procurement 1.3 billion shillings, while M/S Toyota Uganda Limited will supply Escort Cars worth 500 million shillings.

Parliament will buy 21 four-wheel-drive double cabin pickups Nissan Navara, 14 double-cabin pickups, 6 Toyota Fortuner station wagons,13 executive luxury coach buses, and 2 Toyota station wagons. Nissan Nivara Pickups cost about 150 million shillings in Uganda.

Others are; 5 executive commuter vans, 2 Mercedes Benz V classes, 1 modern ambulance,15 Nissan buses and 5 high-roofed Toyota Hiace vans.

According to Parliament Director Communications, Chris Obore, some of the cars have already been procured.   He says after the conference, the vehicles procured will remain in the pool of Government vehicles with parliament retaining some while others will be distributed to the different government agencies.

Obore says parliament has bought some of the vehicles, while others will simply be mobilized, as they cannot afford to buy all vehicles to support the delegates coming.

Government in June announced that it would not procure new vehicles this financial year and that money meant for buying cars would be reallocated for other activities.

This decision was meant to cut excesses of Government expenditure.

The Ministry of Finance Spokesperson Jim Mugunga says that the procurement does not contradict government’s decision as Parliament is self-accounting institution.

“The Common Wealth Parliamentary event is an international event we undertook as a country to host and hence are doing everything possible to avail logistical support and make it a success” Mugunga said.

Government reportedly spends up to 100 billion shillings buying to cars.   The CPC conference will cost an estimated 20 billion Shillings.   Some facilitation for the organization is given by Commonwealth.

This is Uganda’s second time to host the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. The first was hosted in 1967.