Interpol Uganda offices should be decentralized

In 1914, during the first International Criminal Police Congress that brought together officials including the police and lawyers from 24 countries, discussions on different identification techniques, catching of fugitives and general cooperation in law enforcement were held.

It is from then that the International Criminal Police Commission was created in 1923 and later, it became the International Criminal Police Organisation which is popularly known as Interpol in 1956. This organisation was established to fight different global crimes such as cybercrime, drug and human trafficking, financial crime, terrorism, firearms trafficking, corruption, among other crimes.

The organisation is headquartered in Lyon, France and has 195 member countries. Each of these countries, Uganda inclusive, has a National Central Bureau (NCB) which is mandated to link the national police with the global network. Uganda’s NCB is located at Mabua road, Kololo, a Kampala City suburb.

The Uganda NCB is further mandated to, among other activities, issue certificates of good conduct and the police clearance certificate, at a fee. These certificates have lately been on demand by different countries in case one needs to travel, by some organisations and companies from their employees and also, by some ‘would be’ business partners before engaging in a business. The main essence is to prove that one has no bad criminal record.

The above mentioned certificates cost between Shs20,000 and Shs80,000 while other documents issued by the same organisation may cost more than that. According to a source in the Uganda Police Force, these monies total to at least Shs1.5 billion or more annually and this goes to the Consolidated Fund since they are paid to the Uganda Revenue Authority.

In the previous years, these certificates were applied for and accessed physically but bravo to the brains behind the online application. This has eased the application and payment process, and has reduced the rampant corruption that was at the said offices. Not forgetting the reduction in inconveniences and costs of making unnecessary travels just to apply for a certificate.  Application for other government documents such as passports are also now conducted online. Bravo!

However, this online application should be more advanced to go as far as receiving the actual document by mail since an online account is already created by the applicant.

This will also reduce the inconveniences and costs of travelling back to the offices to pick certificates. The duration for appointment given before one is set for finger print extraction should also be revised since it appears too long. As for myself, it took me close to three months i.e. from October 8, 2021 to December 29, 2021 to secure an appointment for the said activity, and seven more working days for the certificate to be processed.

Plus, the person’s details should be captured once and last for about 10 years for him/her to update the same details. I had previously acquired a certain certificate about two years ago, undergone the same process of finger print extraction, but to my surprise, I had to do the same for a different certificate.

The Uganda Police Force administration should think of decentralising the Interpol offices to different regions of Uganda, for example by creating an office at each of the different Regional Police Headquarters or in each of the new regional cities of Uganda. This will ease access for the services since most Ugandans need them now and going forward. The lots of finances generated from the issuance of those certificates can help in running those offices. Currently, every Ugandan needs to travel to the Kololo office at least twice to access those services. Interpol Uganda should as well collaborate with the National Identification and Registration Authority since the latter has more details of the applicants, including the finger prints.

The government has eased access to its services by creating regional offices for its entities, for example the passport offices and the driving permit offices. Better still, each district has an office where one can get a national identity card, death and birth certificates, among others.

Lastly, I wish to congratulate the new appointees to the Uganda Police administration, Maj Gen Geoffrey Tumusiime Katsigazi and Major Tom Magambo. Aluta Continua.

Benjamin Agaba, Former mayoral candidate, Ntungamo Municipality