MPs Order Detention of Two Auditors Over Unaudited Digital Number Plate Project

What the report says

Parliament’s Physical Infrastructure Committee has ordered two senior officials from Uganda’s Office of the Auditor General to be detained after they told MPs that the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System, also known as the digital number plate project, had not been audited for about four years. Nile Post reports that the inquiry focused on the multibillion-shilling project, which has been under implementation since 2021, and on why no financial or technical audit had been completed.

Committee chair Mwine Mpaka accused the audit office of failing to meet its oversight duties, citing legal provisions he said require regular audits from the start of the project. The officials, including the Director for Central Government Audit and the Director for Value for Money Audit, presented a written explanation from Auditor General Edward Akol. That submission said the office had planned work for the 2025 audit year and had contacted the Ministry of Works and Transport in June 2025 for background information.

According to the report, the ministry later said digital vehicle registration was part of ITMS and that the project was being handled by a multisectoral team under the Office of the President. The auditors’ submission also said the project had been treated as security-related and was fully financed by Russian company Joint Stock Company Global Security Limited. MPs were not satisfied with that explanation, especially amid questions about how motorists are paying more than Shs750,000 for the plates.

Mpaka then directed parliamentary investigators to take the officials into custody for questioning, saying they would remain at a police station until their superior appeared. The committee later held a closed-door meeting with police over confidential material linked to alleged technical and security concerns. The episode adds to growing parliamentary scrutiny of the project’s financing, contracts and accountability.