Legislators ask to stop South Sudan use of Uganda’s telephone gateway
September 8, 2008 (KAMPALA) — Ugandan lawmakers have again raised in less than a month the use of Uganda’s country code (+256) by a southern Sudan telecommunication company and urged the government to cancel it immediately.
In a report to be presented to the Ugandan parliament disclosed by the Daily Monitor today, a specialised panel states that the deal signed between Kampala government and Gemtel in September 2006 is illegal and request to abrogate it.
The chairman of the Committee on Commissions, State Enterprises and Statutory Authorities, which investigated the issue, said on Monday that “Sudan is a sovereign state and if the Southern Sudan government wants a zip code, they know where to apply for one, but not to use our country code.”
On 19 August, the Ugandan minister of Information and Communication Technology, Ham Mulira, told the legislators that southern Sudan government would stop using Ugandan country code next October.
The issue is debated by the MPs since 2007 and every time they insist on the “dubious” nature of the deal and request the government to unveil the conditions of the deal. They also ask about the details relating to the Gemtel shareholders.
In March 2007, Gier Cuang Aluong, southern Sudan government minister of telecommunications said “there is a contract between Gemtel and the national Ugandan Telecom Company (UTC), to use the gateway, Gemtel is paying US$50,000 a month.”
However, the head of the investigation committee, John Odit, said “Gemtel does not pay any direct taxes to Uganda.” He also contested government capacity to sign such a deal without authority from Parliament.
Another Ugandan MP, Livingstone Okello-Okello, underlined that this deal contravenes Uganda Communications Commission regulatory and monitoring standards of Uganda’s airwaves.
“This arrangement flouted procurement procedures and the whole deal should be terminated and whoever is involved should face the law,” Okello-Okello stressed.
(ST)
Paul Chadrack
Legislators ask to stop South Sudan use of Uganda’s telephone gateway
Ugandan govern have an absolute right to terminate GEMTEL of using the Ugandan code +256,which was a deal between the so call GOSS communication minister Gier Chuang Aluong private business,whom he had started during the war era in Southern Sudan by using some of looted relief food from the suffering IDPs Camps which were around SPLA control areas.