Digital Number Plates Scandal: Top Officials Arrested after ‘Speaking in Tongues’ on ‘Ghost Trips’ and Price

Two government officials have been arrested after failing to give Parliament consistent explanations over how Uganda arrived at the controversial Shs714,300 price of a new digital number plate.

The arrests followed a tense appearance before Parliament’s Committee on Physical Infrastructure, which is investigating the cost, implementation and wider financial implications of Uganda’s Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS).

The officials are Nathan Negesa, a public officer attached to the Office of the President, and Moses Bekabye, a Ministry of Finance official.

Parliament CID officers took the two into custody after the committee found their explanations on the pricing and benchmarking of the digital plates unsatisfactory.

Negesa was pressed to explain the components making up the Shs714,300 motorists are required to pay for a new digital number plate.

But instead of providing a clear breakdown, he struggled to account for the full amount.

A breakdown subsequently presented to the committee reportedly added up to only Shs624,000.

That left Shs90,300 unexplained, deepening questions over how the final price was calculated and whether the amount charged to motorists was properly supported by the underlying costs.

The questioning took another dramatic turn when MPs confronted Bekabye over claims he had previously made about international benchmarking.

During an earlier appearance before the committee, Bekabye reportedly told lawmakers under oath that government officials had travelled to China, Russia and India to establish how much digital number plates cost in other countries.

But when he appeared before the same committee again, he admitted that no such benchmarking trips had taken place.

The contradiction immediately raised questions about the information supplied to Parliament and the basis on which the Shs714,300 charge was justified as the officials appeared to be speaking in tongues that kept changing.

The committee’s inquiry comes amid growing concern over the cost of Uganda’s digital number plate system, which was introduced under the ITMS project.

The system is being implemented by Russian firm Joint Stock Company Global Security under a 10-year agreement signed with government in 2021. New vehicle and motorcycle owners are charged Shs714,300 for first registration, while replacement plates cost Shs150,000 for motor vehicles and Shs50,000 for motorcycles.

The high cost has repeatedly come under parliamentary criticism, particularly because boda boda riders and other low-income motorists are required to pay the same new-registration charge as owners of expensive vehicles.

The Parliamentary Committee on Physical Infrastructure has consequently been demanding answers on whether the security and tracking benefits of the system justify the price.

Parliament recently reported that security officials told MPs that digital number plates had contributed to the recovery of a significant number of stolen vehicles, although challenges remain in recovering stolen motorcycles.

At the same time, the committee has been examining wider concerns surrounding the project, including delays in issuing plates, production capacity, revenue losses and the performance of the Russian contractor.

Last week, the parliamentary probe was examining revenue losses estimated at at least Shs4 billion a week, alongside a sharp decline in the number of plates installed.

The latest arrests now add another layer to the controversy: not merely whether the digital number plates are expensive, but whether government officials can clearly demonstrate how their price was arrived at.

For MPs, the conflicting accounts over the Shs714,300 charge and the alleged overseas benchmarking trips have raised questions about the reliability of the explanations given to Parliament.

The investigation is therefore turning increasingly towards the people and processes that produced the controversial price — and why different government officials appear to be giving different answers when asked to explain it — and what really went wrong in the project vehemently defended by top government officials.

You can read about the crisis at Russian Digital Number Plates Maker as ‘Tax Payers Lose Shs4bn Weekly’ in Controversial Project Here.

It should be remembered that there was an ugly ‘fight’ between two Ugandan generals over the Russian company’s controversial contract, with a minister and general’s letter to Museveni, pointing out why it should the deal should be covered, reportedly blocked from reaching the president, as detailed Here and There.

You can read about how many billions the Russian company’s owners will keep pocketing amidst cries from bodaboda riders and vehicle owners Here and There.

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