By Mubiru Ivan
It seems the parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) has a long way to go to as far as unveiling the rot in Bank of Uganda (BoU) is concerned.
Currently, the committee is probing top Central Bank officials over their role in the alleged irregular closure and sale of seven commercial banks between 1993 and 2017 as raised by the Auditor General John Muwanga’s 2017 forensic audit report.
As the probe continues, BoU is again on spot for investing USD50,000 (approximately Shs185 million) in a website whose valued worth is at USD2,000 (over Shs7.5 million).
The bank of Uganda website was developed in 2007 allegedly by a kenyan IT firm.
According to Solomon King Benge, a local IT expert, they received a request proposal from BoU to develop the site but the requirements were so tough that they were kicked off the grid.
“My sources in BoU say it was eventually done by a Kenyan firm, and BoU is far from happy with the outcome,” he said.
Benge also revealed that following the unsatisfactory results, one of the officials at the institution requested him to do an unofficial audit.
“According to the person who requested my assistance, people abroad (and outside their local hosting ISP, which I will not name) where complaining that they couldn’t access the website. I did a few simple global ping checks over a few days and they always showed the website as unreachable (time-outs, no-response from server, DNS errors, among others) from anywhere except Uganda,” he noted, adding, “Truth is, from what I saw, justifying the USD50,000 cost was impossible. The most complex thing I saw was a document directory, which they said they had to update manually. I’d honestly value the cost of the actual website I saw (front end) at less than USD2,000. Include a (Open Source) backend for the exact functionality I saw and maybe, just maybe you might reach USD5,000. USD50,000? I don’t think so.”
Peter Kakoma, a Software developer said, “I have been in web development for quite a while; I imagine a site with a price tag like that probably has air conditioning and an online massage facility; if you look at it close enough, it massages you. I can’t see any other way that money can be accounted for.”
In August last year, BoU officials also faced Cosase after it was revealed that they procured 350 pens at Shs125 million.
The purchase was reportedly initiated by the Central Bank’s Communications Department for distribution to distinguished guests during the Golden Jubilee Joseph Mubiru Memorial Lecture on August 2 and subsequent activities on August 3, 2016.
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