MPs on Parliament’s Budget Committee have asked their counterparts on the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee to probe reasons behind the decline in the quality of passports being issued currently, with some complaining that the words printed on top of the booklet have been erased within a year of issuance.
The concern was first raised by Sylvia Nayebare (Gomba DWR) during a meeting held between the Budget Committee and MPs from the Defence and Internal Affairs to receive report on the 2024/24 national budget framework paper.
“When you are addressing these passport people, we are getting very poor quality passports, you have a passport, within a month, you can’t even read the word Uganda on it. The words are gone, so you only have a passport that is green in colour,” she said.
She was backed by Rosemary Nyakikongoro (Sheema DWR) who remarked, “I am a rare traveller, but the very few times I have travelled and when you look at my passport, it is faded. What has happened to the quality of passports that we have compared to what we used to have? So I think you need to interest yourselves in that, much as you are looking for more money, what has gone wrong with the quality of our passports?”
Donozio Kahonda (Ruhinda South) who is also member of the Internal Affairs Committee in response argued that the similar concern was raised by officials of the Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship Control who informed the Committee that they have recorded similar concerns with the Uganda Securities and Printing Company.
He said: “That is why they came up with a request that we should actually recommend for a review of the Joint venture agreement in order to address some of these concerns.”
During the meeting, MPs raised the need to renegotiate the Joint Venture Agreement signed between Government and the Uganda Security Printing Company Limited after officials from Immigration told MPs that on average, it takes them 8 days to issue a passport against the set target of 5 days attributing the delays on supply constraints of passport booklets by the printing Company.
The Committee Internal Affairs Committee informed the MPs on the Budget Committee that although the Directorate of Immigrations is obligated to get passports from USPC, the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not supervise USPC since it is not a party to the JVA, thus leaving the Minister of Internal Affairs incapacitated to expedite the process of delivering passports required by the citizenry.
Wilson Kajwengye (Nyabushozi County) called on the Budget Committee to ensure the Department of Immigrations is provided with additional funds to a tune of Shs11.2Bn in FY 2024/25 to entirely phase out the manual system and establish an electronic management system and fully automate the passport service delivery be made, but also called for review of the Joint Venture Agreement.
“This has affected the timely service delivery of a critical public good like; issuance of passports initially be the supply of paper passports. A review of the JVA agreement establishing USPC to manufacturer all government security documents be undertaken before end of FY 2023/24.”
