By William Madouk
Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) strategizes to block loopholes in bid to end graft and promote fair trade in East African region.
Bageya Waiswa, the permanent secretary of Ugandan ministry of Works and Transport, also chairperson for Northern Corridor Executive Committee disclosed the move during regional workshop in Juba.
He said that to clampdown on graft the institution has introduce electronic cargo scanner, weigh-in-motion facilities at weighbridges at different transport nodes in region.
“We have now introduced the electric system of checking cargo; it is quite efficient you don’t have to unload the container when cargo truck approaches, they [relevant agencies] can see what is inside,” he clarified.
“We have taken measures to modernize the way weighbridges so that eventually they will not be manned by people, instead will be manned by computers,” he continued.
He made this remark yesterday during two-days extraordinary meeting to review and approving the Northern Corridor secretariat policy documents and other administrative matters.
Mr. Waiswa stated that as per Northern Corridor policy an extraordinary meeting is geared toward smooth flow of cargos.
“The program is gear to ensure that goods moves uninterruptedly so that at the end of the day, the time of reaching is reduced, the time spend on the way for the good to reach South Sudan or Uganda is reduced,” Waiswa said.
“We aim at reducing cost of doing business, when the cost of doing business reduce than the cost of goods and services also reduce to the benefit of our citizens,” he added.
He added the Northern Corridor would review procurement policy to seal corruption leaks.
“Today, we are reviewing the procurement policy – we want to look at the code of conduct and some other policies,”
Mr. Waiswa cited that procurement department is infected with graft, asserting that 70% of corruption cases are procurement-related: “So, if you don’t handle procurement properly you will promote corruption in the first instance.”
“Secondly, you will miss out the value of money of what you get so that is why we want to streamline this particular area,” he noted.
He stated that Northern Corridor had managed to manage to cope up with the volume of business increases, adding that member states are doing their best to put infrastructure in place.
Waiswa emphasized that major challenge is lack of human resource capacity, corruption and key infrastructures – such as roads, bridges and river transport for easy access of goods in the region.
“the other challenge will be the area of corruption, when goods are moving you find the police is waving at trader down, delays and delays at the end they want something else,” he noted.
Dr. Deng Diar Diing, the executive Secretary for the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) said the Corridor invest processes that enhance custom and infrastructure development.
“In the case of South Sudan, we already have initiatives that are in place, one of which is related to the processes is the automation of custom system for the country,”
Diar said they had already engaged government of South Sudan and donors for resources mobilization for automated custom system.
“Once that is done, then our cargos shall be secured from port of Mombasa all away to Juba – it will not have to be disturbed or unpacked along the way,”
The Northern Corridor is a multimodal route linking to the maritime port of Mombasa.
It serves East African Community (EAC) states of South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda under the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Agreement, in bid to promote regional cooperation by facilitating interstate and transit trade.