Prime
Minister sued over vehicle inspection
Sued. Ms Monica Azuba Ntege
What you need to know:
Illegal. In their law suit, the petitioners say the deal with SGS is a deliberate move to rob Ugandans of more than Shs200b paid for several inspection services to enrich an individual company
Kampala.
Four concerned citizens have dragged Works minister Monica Azuba Ntege to court over the ongoing compulsory vehicle inspection.
The minister was sued before the High Court in Kampala last Friday.
In their complaint, the petitioners led by Mr Aaron Izimba, state that it’s illegal for the Works minister to connive with a Swiss-based company, Societe General De Surveillance (SGS) to dupe Ugandans by sanctioning what they called an illegal compulsory Motor-vehicle inspection.
Also sued is the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of works, Mr Waiswa Bageya.
Government through the Works ministry last year signed a contract with SGS Company aimed at curbing the increasing road carnage resulting from vehicles that are not road worthy and also to minimise on environmental pollution by vehicles in dangerous mechanical conditions.
The same vehicle inspection deal was recently implemented starting with the central region with government saying more inspection points will be opened in upcountry regions later.
Further in their law suit, the concerned citizens contend that the government already has a motor vehicle inspection project run by the Uganda Police Inspector of Vehicles at Naguru, Jinja, Mbarara and Mbale under the Traffic and Road Safety Act and therefore the deal with SGS is a deliberate move to rob Ugandans of over Shs200 bn paid for several inspection services to enrich an individual company.
The petitioners have also in the same regard, sued the tax body the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) on grounds that it neglected its mandatory duty to collect taxes on behalf of the public and instead delegated its authority of collecting such exorbitant fees to be usurped by a private company.
They now want the High Court to issue orders to permanently block this forceful motor vehicle inspection and immediately cancel the contract that was signed between the Works ministry on behalf of government and SGS Company in September this year.
The other prayer to court by the petitioners is to declare that the ongoing motor vehicle inspection project as illegal.
