IMPUNITY? Standoff as NIRA bosses defy M7, refuse to give business to UPPC, German printer Veridos

Operations of Uganda Security Printing Company (USPC) that had been envisaged to aid Uganda’s democratic process may not be ready for the next election cycle – 2026.

It has been discovered that the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) is acting stubborn and not ready to give them printing business.

USPC came into existence following a public-private partnership between the Government of Uganda (51%) and a German firm Veridos (49%).

Uganda Government’s interests are overseen by Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC) which has a stake of 51 per cent in the venture.

Minister Babirye Babalanda led Ministry for Presidency supervises UPPC.

With all infrastructure already in place after investments of over Sh41bn, USPC is now grappling because of NIRA.

The company is meant to operate commercially, without subvention from the national coffers. It was meant to handle very specific work that NIRA is partly doing—security printing, which was deemed a strategic national interest Uganda had to stop contracting to foreign companies.

Reports indicate that NIRA has become completely negative, denying the company revenue by refusing to commission USPC to print national identification cards and other documents of a security nature.

This is in total disregard of a presidential directive owing to the strategic nature of the joint venture enterprise at hand, that national identification documents (a primary duty of NIRA) and national passports (Primarily handled by the Immigration department of the ministry of internal affairs) be tendered to USPC as part of helping it take off.

At the onset in 2018, the government provided land as its initial input. Construction is ongoing and contractors say above 70% of the work has been done. The total capital up to the time of production was put at 75.4 Billion shillings, with a delivery time frame of thirty months as from May 2022 when ground was broken for the project.

This implies the contractor would have handed over by December 2024. However, management says that going by the financial hurdles, the project is already behind by six months, meaning completion of civil works will only be complete by possibly June 2025.

This means the tendering process and procurement of machinery to be fitted at the premises will already be late to serve purpose for the 2026 elections – printing voters’ cards, ballots and related materials.

USPC had as a way of building confidence of its clients to recruit technical staff but have the initial printing works done abroad. To meet immigration printing needs, USPC is currently printing passports from abroad.

Back to back meetings have reportedly taken place but NIRA bosses repeatedly remain unmoved.

This standoff exists inspite of an agreement to which NIRA managers appended signature. Trips were sponsored by USPC abroad where sample works were made, which NIRA approved quality-wise but still declined to give business to USPC.

According to Juliet Kajumba, USPC legal officer, section 4 of the agreement with NIRA spelt out the obligations of NIRA but whenever the latter’s management are reminded, “they simply say we don’t have money.”

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