THE CONTROVERSY surrounding Uganda's electronic photographic voters' register has deepened further with the discovery that the Electoral Commission has failed to put to any use equipment worth billions of shillings that it bought from the firm contracted to offer consultancy services.

After investigating the deal, the Inspectorate of Government (IGG) has concluded that there was a conflict of interest when the Rank Consult/ Omicron consortium supplied the equipment. The firm had been contracted to integrate various software and hardware supplied by other companies.

The IGG indicates that, despite "vehement opposition" from the EC's data processing staff, the Commission went ahead and allowed the consultants to supply the equipment, which is lying idle in the commission's stores.

For example, voters' photographs were originally supposed to be backed up on ordinary 3.5-inch 1.44-megabyte floppy disks, but last July Rank Consult/ Omicron recommended that the commission procure 5,000 Super Discs for back up. 

In another instance, when Commission staff identified faults in the system last September, including slow rate of data capture and mistakes in voters' particulars and locations, they recommended that manual data entry be used to supplement the 60 licences for ICR (Eyes and Hands) software. 

This would have involved recruitment of additional staff, since computers were already in place. Instead, 90 additional licences for ICR software were procured from Omicron at a cost of over Ush800 million ($459,770).

Originally, 5,000 photo screens had been supplied at a cost of $15,675. But it was later discovered that they could not be used so they, too, are lying in the stores. Screens of a different colour were then purchased.

Mr Frank Katusiime, the head of the Rank Consult/ Omicron joint venture, on December 1, 2001 wrote to the secretary to the commission, requesting that Omicron be allowed to supply 20 additional licences for data analysis for $400,000 in order to speed up the project.

The spokesman of the IGG, Mr Martin Okumu, said their investigations had revealed several cases of abuse of office, financial mismanagement and conflict of interest in the award of tenders. He declined to provide details. 

But an investigator said: "The consultants gave the commission supplies, equipment and software, which amounted to a conflict of interest, since their contract was solely for system integration."

Mr Katusiime could not be reached for comment as he was last week reported to be out of the country. Commission officials said they could not comment on ongoing investigations.

Concerns have also been raised about the effectiveness of the $145,297 laminator and the $232,611 die-cutter (both supplied by Omicron). The colour printers are also said to be "slow."

Officials in the IGG's office said that the conflict of interest and irregularities in tendering at the Commission were a principal reason for the increase in the cost of the project from the initial $6 million to over $17 million.

The register is yet to be completed, 16 months after the consultants were engaged. Delays in the project were partly to blame for the muddled local government elections early this year.

During trials of the PVRIS system between April and September last year, data processing staff of the EC discovered that there was a high prevalence of misinterpretation of characters, a problem that was compounded by lack of comprehensive documents detailing all aspects of the system.

The consultants were ill-prepared or lacked adequate knowledge of the system.

The government's procurement adviser, Swipco, on December 4, 2000, ruled that none of the bidding firms for consultancy on PVRIS was qualified. It recommended that the best option would be to cancel the tender and begin a new procurement process: "None of the proposals were responsive to the requirements. In addition, the detailed technical evaluation indicates that none of the bidders is eligible for financial evaluation."

Since equipment for PVRIS was procured from various firms, there was need for an integrator to ensure various components of the project could work as one system. Rank Consult/ Omicron and Pan American Business Solutions Inc were the two bidders.

Commission staff have told the IGG that the consultants worked in total secrecy, denying them access to the PVRIS integration system. They said any view contrary to the consultants' was considered "sabotage."

Sources said that while the Rank Consult/Omicron agreement indicated that 12 consultants were to work on the project, available information shows that only four consultants have been working consistently, the others having left last March.

It was learnt that technical staff in the Data Processing department of the EC did not take part in identifying the specifications and quantities of the required equipment and software for PVRIS. 

Documents made available to The EastAfrican indicate that the system recommended by the bureaucrats was deficient. 

"It was not tested before the Commission decided on using it, yet nowhere in the world had it been used before," a source said. Various components like scanners, software, facial recognition software and a die-cutter were to be supplied by various firms.

A separate team that travelled to South Africa, which included two commissioners and the head of the EC's data processing department, identified a complete system at MGX Holdings Ltd, which would have been able to produce the register in 45 days at a cost of $7 million. 

A report by the SA team says MGX demonstrated to them how their system worked. It added that the system had been used in Turkey to process 18 million census records in 30 working days. Uganda's register has just over eight million voters.

Last December, the consultants told the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Ms Janat Mukwaya, that commission staff were sabotaging the project. As a result, the three top officials of the data processing department were sent on suspension.