On 3rd November, 2021, the Ministry of Works and Transport took over the function of administration and management of Motor Registration from Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). The purpose of this take over was to ensure that Ugandans receive better services.
To ensure that Ugandans applying for Motor vehicle registration don’t encounter any difficulties during the process, the ministry maintained the usage of URA’s E-Tax platform to facilitate the Post First Time Registration processes such as Change of Ownership, Alteration of Vehicle Particulars, Duplicate documents (Logbooks and Number Plates).
However, in the space of one month since the ministry took over the management of the Motor Vehicle Registration, a lot of challenges have been raised and almost 99 percent are caused by the brokers who pretend to help people yet in the actual sense thet are making the processes harder for them through extortion.
Addressing journalists at Uganda Media Center on Wednesday, the Minister of Works and Transport, Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala said many vehicle owners in Uganda are yet to validate their vehicle information on the e-Tax motor vehicle registration system and they have delayed because of fear of corruption by brokers.
“This has made it difficult to harmonize the current and existing information of all vehicle in the country which in the long run pose a big security risk and also makes it difficult for the government to effectively plan and budget for the transport sector in Uganda,”Gen Katumba said.
He also confirmed that the heavy reliance on brokers for all Post Time Motor Vehicle Registration transactions by the public has created a false perception that the processes are too complicated, tedious and time-consuming therefore, the brokers have utilised this false perception to extort money from the public.
“These brokers have been misleading the public that their applications will not be worked upon without the Motor Vehicle Registration officers being bribed /facilitated to do so. Unfortunately, this false notion has now become the known way of carrying out a post-time Motor Vehicle Registration (MVR) transaction in Uganda.”
Gen Katumba added that because brokers need a commission, they have hiked the money an applicant is supposed to pay to get the MVR service. Unfortunately, this commission fee has made post-first time MVR processes expensive for applicants with many abandoning the required services in general.
Brokers also have been disseminating false and misleading information to the public such as; ‘That the MVR officers ask for bribes before they can process an application or that the MVR offices have been closed and that why their application is taking longer to be processed.’ This misinformation is promoted to enrich these brokers which unfortunately comes to the cost of government good name and the public who desperately require these services.
Gen Katumba also revealed that many applicants have raised issues of lost applications that were given to brokers for submission.
The minister disclosed that when the brokers are given documents for submission and the necessary payable fees, they usually divert the monies into their personal business and thus delay or never submit the applications (or even submit the application but the same is not processed since the necessary fees are not paid).
As a way of helping the applicants, the ministry has decided to degazette all green and pink logbooks. Therefore all persons with such logbooks have been given up to six months to validate their motor vehicle details and accordingly obtain a white logbook absent of which their vehicles will not be allowed on road and soon a statutory instrument in respect will be issued.
Starting from next year only applicants will be allowed to submit applications relating to post-time motor vehicle registration services at the MVR offices premises. For the case of non-individual entities (such as companies), they will be required to legally appoint a person as their agent (which processes is done through a registered Power of Attorney) to conduct such MVR processes on the company’s behalf.
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