Agency ReportsThe Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is implementing the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure and E‐Government Infrastructure Project (NBI/EGI) intended to connect all major towns in Uganda onto an optical fiber network and connect all Government Ministries and Departments into an E‐Government Network.
The NBI/EGI project is planned to be implemented in four phases with phases I completed in 2007 while phase II is nearing completion. Phase I is estimated to have involved the laying of 168 kilometers of fiber optic cable to link five (5) towns including Mukono, Bombo, Entebbe and Jinja to Kampala. The current Phase II is estimated to involve the laying of approximately 1477 kilometers of Optical Fiber Cable across the country to extend the national backbone to all parts of the Country.
Phase II of the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure and eGovernment Infrastructure (NBI/EGI) Project was halted by Parliament of Uganda pending the completion of repairs of Phase I of the project. However, due to a number of reasons, Huawei Technologies decided to act against the directives of Parliament and the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, and commenced with the implementation of Phase II without approval. Phase II of the NBI/EGI was therefore implemented unsupervised by the Ministry of ICT and the National Information Technology Authority-Uganda. Parliament therefore, recommended a need for a Forensic Technical Audit to verify the works and materials for Phase II of the NBI/EGI Project.
The objectives of the audit was to:
1. Verify and ensure that all installations, equipment and construction carried out are in conformity with agreed designs
2. Ascertain where or not there is value for money in the implementation of phases I and II of the NBI/EGI, and
3. Identify impacts that the project had on the flora, fauna, soil systems, drainage systems, wetland systems, forests, rivers, lakes, swamps, and cultural sites together with the physical, biological and socio‐economic factors in the environments that were affected by phases I and II of the project.
This is a report of the Forensic Technical Audit carried out on phases I and II of the National Backbone Infrastructure and E‐Government Infrastructure (NBI/EGI).
(Download Forensic Technical Audit Report)
It was agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding between NITA – U and Huawei that in the event that the results from the Forensic Technical Audit were less than the accepted and contracted metrics, Huawei Technologies would be responsible for the correction and achievement of the original, contracted deliverable. This could be by repair, upgrade or complete replacement. Huawei Technologies would have to propose the time for the correction of the defect or non – performance. NITA – U will reserve the right to agree.
A number of defects were identified during the Forensic Technical Audit, whose high level summary is provided in sections 5.1 – 5.5, and these defects were discussed by the technical teams of NITA – U, Telcoms Infrastructure and Huawei Technologies.
A snag list was thereafter developed to indicate all issues raised by the FTA, and this snag list presented to Huawei, who have responded by presenting to NITA – U an implementation plan for the resolution of all snags for which they were deemed responsible. The completion date for the resolution of the defects was 15th February 2012, however NITA – U has noted that the FTA did not oversee the requirement for post audit verification after the defects have been resolved. The management of NITA – U carried out a preliminary review of the remedial works and the report is available below.
(Download Preliminary Verification of Remedial Works Report)
