Imported vehicles are to be inspected from their source to make sure they conform to environmental, mechanical and road safety standards.
The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) manager for standards development, Patrick Ssekitoleko, said the practice would start in May.
“The new programme is aimed at assuring car buyers’ of value for money compared to those who just buy vehicles from the Internet without knowing the actual value of the vehicle or whether it is the real one,” Ssekitoleko said.
“It is also aimed at ensuring the imported vehicles were not stolen following the recent arrest of many vehicles by International Police in Uganda,” he said at a workshop on the Uganda National Bureau of Standards Amendment Bill recently at the Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala.
“The bureau is planning to contract out firms to which a company or anybody exporting vehicles to Uganda must go for verification. The exporter will have to pay for the verification and inspection. We are looking at firms that will charge minimal costs but with capacity to do the work,” Ssekitoleko explained.
He said the verification was being done in order to reduce the number of lives lost due to the importation of vehicles in dangerous mechanical condition.
“How much do you lose when you buy a stolen vehicle and the owner recovers it from you?” he asked.
The bureau’s legal counsel, Hellen Wanene, said the UNBS Act was enacted in 1983 when the social and economic environment was different from today..
“Liberalization has resulted into a high degree of unfair trading practices.”
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