EC boss insists on foreign firm to print ballot papers

EC|POLITICS|2021 GENERAL POLLS 

KAMPALA - The Electoral Commission (EC) chairman, Justice Simon Byabakama, has insisted on procuring foreign firms to print ballot papers for the 2021 general elections.

He said EC also feels that where possible local companies should participate in the printing of ballot papers but noted that this is not a mere sentimental process.

"It is a question of capacity. Our technical team realised that there were shortcomings in the technical competences of our local printers, particularly in the area of ballot printing," Byabakama told journalists on Thursday at EC headquarters.

This was shortly after meeting the 10 cleared aspirants and/or their agents on the final preparations for the nomination of presidential aspirants and other issues under the roadmap for 2020/2021 general elections.

"Given the high numbers and the high valuables and the time element in this COVID-19 [situation] we said let printing tender be awarded to foreign entities. 

We are handling a very delicate process and we can't afford to have any delayed delivery or printing of ballot papers. Any delay pushes the commission into a possibility of non-compliance with the rigid requirement of Article 61 (2) where elections must be held within a specific timeline under that Article," he said.

"So taking into account all these factors the commission felt that our local companies may not handle the work within the required time. However, PPDA ruled otherwise, saying there were issues. But we are having further engagements with PPDA to resolve this immediately because we can't afford to delay any more," he added.

Ballot papers for the 2016 elections were printed in South Africa by Ms Paarl Media of South Africa, which won the tender to print the key voting material.

On Monday, Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) canceled their award of tenders to some foreign firms to print ballot papers.

PPDA directed the EC to re-evaluate bids for Picfare Industries Ltd, Graphics Systems Ltd, Inline Print Services and New Vision-Hi-tech JV, which were controversially sidelined in the sh185b tender award that was given to foreign firms.

It also advised the EC to set aside some of the lots (batches) for participation on national and resident providers in the future procurement to be undertaken by the entity.

EC last month awarded a number of tenders to foreign firms that included Tall Security Printers (UK), Uniprint (South Africa), United Printing and Publishing (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Adare Sec Ltd (UK) and Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Company (Dubai).

In their complaint, UPPA noted that the evaluation was not properly conducted in a number of areas which included local firms such as Graphic Systems, Picfare Industries, Inline Print Services, Multiplex, and Wave Media. 

They said the firms were unfairly eliminated on grounds of lack of evidence of successful completion of three contracts of similar nature and complexity. 

The local firms argued that they had submitted copies of local purchase orders for printing and supply of ballot papers and other relevant assignments as proof that they had carried out similar work.

The EC contended that New Vision-Hi-tech was eliminated for failure to state the delivery schedule in its bid to which the entity could have sought clarification.

UPPA stated that the bid prices of some of the local printers were lower than those of the foreign bidders and that the prices at bid opening differed from the awarded prices indicated in the notice of best-evaluated bidder.

The association noted that all the printing contracts were awarded to foreign firms despite the presence of verified local printing capacity and in breach of the Buy Uganda Build Uganda policy and the PPDA guidelines of 2018.

Parties divided

In a related development, the move to award the tender to foreign firms has drawn a mixed reaction, with the Opposition raising fears some ballot papers may end up in the wrong hands if they were to be printed locally.

"To ensure that we get ballots that are not forgeable, we are of the view that they are printed outside the country. We fear that candidates with whom we are contesting may have links to those companies. As such, we will not be happy if ballots were printed here," Dan Mugarura, the chairman of EC of the Alliance for National Transformation party, said.

However, NRM secretary general Justine Lumumba Kasule said ballot papers should be printed here so that they don't take money outside the country. 

"Every candidate should have an agent to witness the printing and packing of the ballot papers for transparency and confidence," she said.