{UAH} Govt agencies could have avoided Sim card registration chaos with better coordination

Parliament has summoned the minister of information and communications technology, Frank Tumwebaze, to explain why he defied the House's motion to extend the Sim card registration exercise by not more than a year.

Tumwebaze is scheduled to present his defence to parliament tomorrow (Tuesday). By the time we went to press, the minister had not responded to our queries on whether he will honour the parliament summons.

The ping pong between parliament and Tumwebaze is the latest fruit of the confusion that has befallen the controversial Sim card registration exercise, which culminated in the decision by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to switch off unverified mobile phone cards on May 20.

In fact, because of the rushed nature of the decision-making around this matter, some telecoms were so ill-prepared to do this job that they have ended up switching off the Sim cards of even those who they had earlier notified that their particulars were in order.

Since the executive director of UCC and the inspector general of police announced the fresh registration of Sim cards, the exercise has been plagued by confusion and inconsistencies.

First, the duo allocated seven consecutive days for the exercise, never mind that most of those days fell on a long weekend with two public holidays.

At this point, it is not even clear to Ugandans whether the two public officials were acting on the instructions of their respective ministers or they took matters into their own hands to issue a policy directive on Sim card registration.

Anyway, at a time when UCC and police seemed at odds over the next step to take on an exercise that clearly needed more time to be executed, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda staved off an emerging crisis when his office took over the matter and announced a one-month extension.

But even that month was clearly not enough. Then, enter Parliament last week with a motion calling for a not-more-than-one-year postponement of the deadline, which the information ministry has defied.

With a little more planning and coordination, this exercise would not have descended into the confusion unfolding before us.

Now, the prime minister needs to take charge and brief parliament of a more coherent way forward, and then provide guidance to the two ministries and the agencies in charge of this exercise. It is not too late to undo the damage.

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Allaah gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him."And if Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it but He, and if He touches you with good, then He is Able to do all things." (6:17)

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