NIRA puts 10 million Ugandans in an inquisitive wait
Kisembo said the authority needs about Shs60 billion to procure identity cards and an additional sh70 billion to set up Nira offices in selected districts.
“We have an obligation to purchase nine million cards from USPC, and we have a funding gap of Shs67.634b in regard to that. In order to adequately register the 16.4 million Ugandans, and bring the services close to the parishes, Nira will need sh71.9b,” she said.
A machine is deemed to be at the end of life when the manufacturer stops manufacturing the machines, but continues to manufacture spare parts. Nira’s case is different because the manufacturer has also stopped manufacturing the spare parts and repairing the machines. This means the only option is to decommission the machines.
“If you go to the market right now, you will only get refurbished parts because the manufacturer has stopped manufacturing the spares and so these refurbished parts cannot do the same work like those that are new,” Kisembo explained.
Brig Stephen Kwiringira, the Director of Registration and Operations at NIRA, said the technologies that they are having are obsolete. For example, he said the registration kits were procured in 2010 and 2014. He also said Nira does not have a fallback system in the event that disaster strikes the main site.
He added: “The current registration system [poses] a risk because if you are running operating systems which are not supported by the original manufacturer, it means that you are not getting the security upgrades that you should be getting. They become a source of breaches and data losses.”
Brig Kwiringira said only one of the two machines procured in 2010 for production of the IDs is working, albeit below capacity. He added that only one of two machines procured in 2014 is working.
Jim Mugunga, the Finance ministry spokesperson, said that he is not certain whether the sh67.634b was budgeted for. He also added that the release of funds is based on the available resource envelope.
“The Ministry of Finance receives funding requirements from multiple MDAs and these are processed according to the available resources. The decision for allocations are made by Cabinet and once it is done, we process them depending on what is available,” Mugunga said.
Ms Rosemary Nyakikongoro, the chairperson of the parliamentary Defence and Internal Affairs Committee, with its members, have promised to compel the government to allocate more funds to Nira.