Here’s how vehicle inspection will work

Swiss firm, Societe Generale De Surveillance (SGS), the contracted official motor vehicles’ inspector, will remit 10 per cent of its total monthly inspection fees to government, officials have said.

SGS started the inspections this month after it erected inspection centers in different spots on main routes leading out of Kampala. The firm was awarded the contract in March last year after about four years of squabbles over the transparency of the bidding process. SGS will take 90 per cent of the revenue.

One of the inspection centres at Matugga is ready for use while the other three stations around Kampala city suburbs and the mobile units are about to be ready, said a statement from the ministry of works.

Inspection centres are situated at Nabbingo along the Kampala-Masaka highway and Namulanda along the existing Kampala-Entebbe highway. Another will be on Kampala-Jinja road.

Winstone Katushabe, the chief licensing officer of motor vehicles at ministry of works, told The Observer that the inspections were not aimed at pushing vehicles off the road, but to remind vehicle owners to work on the cars.

He said those who fail the test will be asked to fix their cars and hefty fines will be charged for the motorists who will not comply. SGS said in a statement on its website that they “would design, implement and perform roadworthiness inspections nationwide. Vehicles will be subject to safety and emission inspections.”

Katushabe said the inspection is to make sure that road-worthy vehicles are on the road to curb accidents caused by vehicles in dangerous mechanical condition.

The automated inspection will look out for most sensitive vehicle systems including emissions, brakes, suspension, headlamps, and alignment. And this will not replace Fika Salama, the ongoing campaign launched by police at the height of road accidents on Kampala-Masaka-Mbarara road in the first half of this year.

More than 200 people died in less than six months. Buses or vehicles that carry more than 60 passengers will pay just Shs 800. A statement from the ministry of works said the fees payable for inspection of buses and trailers are very low because of the nature and sensitivity of their work.

“Buses carry big number of passengers and they are supposed to be inspected twice a year and in future they will be inspected after every three months,” reads the statement.

Commercial vehicles will be inspected twice a year and once for private non-commercial vehicles. Private small cars will pay up to Shs 93,000 annually.

Some motorists, however, are not happy with the pending inspections.

Steven Dunstan Busuulwa posted on his Facebook page: “Am not against the inspection but the way it is done. How can you say you are charging inspection fees on every vehicle and the fees are high? Ugandans already pay taxes on these cars to Uganda Revenue Authority on fuel and spare parts. If the motive is good and in good spirit, do it [for] free.”

Uganda last did mandatory inspections in 1997. In a paper last year, Ronald Amanyire, the secretary of National Road Safety Council, said inspections were stopped because the process was flawed.

He said it was also de-linked from being a requirement for a road license, lacked transparency, and that results of inspection were subjective (opinion and experience of the Inspector) besides a lack of investment in required modern equipment.

All these have been addressed in the new move. SGS has promised to invest at least $12.5m in equipment, development of inspection sites and training of staff, according to Amanyire’s paper.

 amwesigwa@observer.ug