Foreign affairs ministry enrols donated protocol vehicles into management system

KAMPALA - In a move aimed at strengthening accountability in the management of public assets, the foreign affairs ministry (MOFA) says it has enrolled protocol vehicles that were recently donated to the country into the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).

Ministry permanent secretary (PS) Vincent Waiswa Bagiire and under secretary Stephen Kyaterekera disclosed the development on March 5, 2026, during an engagement with Members of Parliament on the House public accounts committee (Central) chaired by Mawogola South MP Goretth Namugga (NUP).

IFMS is a computerised platform designed to manage and automate all Government financial transactions and processes. It is overseen by the finance ministry (MOFPED).

Bagiire attributed the delay to IFMS’ asset module, which, despite being in existence, was only activated about two years ago.

“All ministries have maintained an asset register, I think on PBS (programme-based system), because it is a requirement by Parliament that for you to submit your Ministerial Policy Statement (MPS), you must equally submit an asset register. So, on PBS we have it captured and it is automated. But we wanted it also on IFM,” he explained.

Kyaterekera added, “But that has since been resolved and all the vehicles are on the IFMS register; this can be verified and everything is captured,” Kyaterekera revealed.

AG report

The duo was responding to observations Auditor General (AG) Edward Akol made in his report on the foreign affairs ministry for the year ended December 2025, in which he said, although 140 vehicles had been recorded on the manual register, they were yet to be enrolled on the IFMS assets register.

“I further noted that the ministry is in the process of transferring all its manual assets register onto the IFMS assets module upon valuation,” AG Akol added.

Background

The backstory to this is that between 2019 and 2023, the Chinese government donated 140 sport utility vehicles (SUV’s) to Uganda in preparation for the Group of seventy-seven countries (G77 + China) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conferences, which were held at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala city in January 2024.

The first batch of 70 Toyota Prado SUVs arrived in September 2019 and was stored at the central mechanical workshop of the works ministry (MOWT).

The second batch, comprising 70 Maxus D90 SUVs, was delivered in November 2023 under the Uganda Vehicle Aid Project.

Usage of vehicles

According to Bagiire, all the aforementioned vehicles are duly registered under the foreign affairs ministry. These apparently support the entire Government in its protocol requirements, with Parliament being the biggest client.

“The usage of those vehicles is that we get a request from an MDA. For instance, on February 5, 2026, we got a request from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), they have a plenipotentiary conference on the African Postal Union, and they were requesting 20 vehicles to use for protocol and transportation of VIP’s (Very Important Persons)," Bagiiree explained. 

"When such a request is sent to us, we write to the Ministry of Works, requesting that they release the vehicle, for what period and also demand that the vehicles be returned,” he added.

However, he said they are having a discussion whether to maintain the entire 140 protocol vehicles or distribute 70 of them to other MDA’s to maintain a leaner fleet to cut maintenance costs.

Mismanagement fears

With this development, many lawmakers said they can afford a sigh of relief owing to what they said were fears that the delay in enrolling them onto IFMS could have exposed them to mismanagement.

“The reason why we have to worry is that we have never seen vehicles donated to this country, and they end up being personalised by some of our colleagues. This happened to the tractors of the Ministry of Agriculture….” Namugga stated.

Adding that until they ascertain, with their own eyes, the presence of these automobiles at the Works ministry workshop, it is still a long shot to call.  

“If we leave this committee room and go to work, shall we find these vehicles there or have you distributed them?” she asked.

However, the development also came as a shock to Kassanda North MP Patrick Guma Oshabe Nsamba (NUP), who questioned why Government entities often procure protocol vehicles ahead of major events in the country, yet they have this fleet with them.  

“Why would Government have to buy vehicles when they have a fleet of about 140?” Nsamba wondered.