Voters Cards Ready In February â€" Katusiime

Jan 15, 2002

EXPERTS providing consultancy services to the Electoral Commission (EC) say they expect the photographic voter cards to be ready by the end of February.

By Okello JabweliEXPERTS providing consultancy services to the Electoral Commission (EC) say they expect the photographic voter cards to be ready by the end of February. It had been expected that the cards would be used for the current rounds of local elections which will end next month with the LC5 polls.Rank Consult’s Frank Katusiime and his Omicron Corporation Inc. partner, Nigerian Olusola Obasa told The New Vision yesterday that contrary to press reports, the project is on course. Katusiime said they are downloading photo-images. “Everything is working well. (Ministers Janat) Mukwaya and (Miria) Matembe have all been there and seen our work. What we don’t understand is why people keep claiming that the project is not fine,” Obasa said. The two were reacting to The New Vision’s lead story yesterday that said their joint venture had clinched a new contract worth over sh3b to offer consultancy to the commission.Katusiime said the report was misleading as there is no such new contract.“This was merely an extension of our contract with the EC. It was just an addendum. We negotiated the extension and concluded it in November, so the effective date had to be the date of expiry of the last one (June 2001). There had to be a continuous contract,” he said. He contested the assertion that his team of experts are to travel First Class, saying there is no such clause in the contract.“The figure of US$5,000 per ticket is not unreasonable. The EC are not fools. This job involves travelling. Omicron is an American company so the consultants have to travel here.Besides, most components of the equipment we are using are made in the US. We have to travel there,” Katusiime said. He again denied any responsibility for the messy LC3 polls, saying their mandate did not extend to the general administration of elections and the production of the voter register.“We also had nothing to do with the supply of equipment. Our job is to check compliance of equipment supplied; install it, integrate it and train EC staff members to use it.“Finally, under the contract we are supposed to be available during the production of the register and cards to offer advisory services to the EC as may be required. That is where we stop.”The two protested the innuendo that they are overpaid for a shoddy job. “We don’t take advance. Our work is paid through acceptance certificates signed by a commissioner. If they don’t accept our work we don’t get paid,” Katusiime said. “There was an invitation for bids and in fact ours was the lowest.”Obasa said the delay in producing the photographic voter cards was partly caused by the EC when it decided to hire unqualified and, in some cases, illiterate people to gather field data.Ends

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