ANNEX: THE COSTS OF NDAGA MUNTU According to the ‘Report of the Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs on the inquiry into the procurement of equipment for the National Security Information System (NSIS)/the National ID Project’ published in 2012 (the “NSIS Procurement Report of 2012”),1 the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MOFPED) began to develop strategies for a ‘national data bank’ as early as 2004.2 An aborted tender process led to a contract with Face Technologies, a South African company, that was cancelled in 2006.3 However, the Government of Uganda (GoU) did not begin spending significant amounts of money on equipment for the development of a national ID system until early 2010, when President Museveni directed the MIA to coordinate with the Electoral Commission (EC) to develop a national ID system by leveraging the voter registration process for then-upcoming 2011 national elections.4 A month later, in March 2010, the GoU entered into a ‘single sourcing procurement’ contract with Mühlbauer ID Services GmbH, a German corporation, for “supply of the technology and other related services” for the NSIS. Since March 2010, the GoU has spent more than UGX 745 billion (approximately $206 million USD at current exchange rates, or $260 million USD using average annual exchange rates) to develop, implement, and maintain a national ID system. Bureaucratic mandates related to Uganda’s national digital ID system have shifted, Ndaga Muntu has replaced the NSIS Project, and NIRA has emerged as a new agency under the MIA. Accordingly, tracing the Government of Uganda’s expenditures on national ID systems across the MOFPED’s National Budget Performance Reports requires an analysis of expenditures in various ministries and agencies over time. Specifically, amounts budgeted and spent on national ID projects appear as “machinery and equipment” purchases within the in the MIA’s Policy, Planning and Support line item in the FY 2009/10 National Budget Performance Report, as “NSIS Project” expenditures under the MIA in the FY 2010/11 report, as “NSIS Project” expenditures within the National Citizenship and Immigration Control’s budget in the FY 2011/12–2016/17 reports, and as NIRA expenditures in the FY 2017/18– 2019/20 reports. Budgets and expenditures for CRVS services have similarly migrated from the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) to NIRA over the past decade. The Government of Uganda’s budgetary periods run from July 1 to June 30. Table 1 below provides a summary of amounts budgeted for and spent on national ID systems and CRVS systems from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2020, according to the 11 MOFPED National Budget Performance Reports published for financial years 2009/10 through 2019/20. As Table 1 shows, although the Government of Uganda spent more than 745 UGX billion on national ID systems over the relevant period, it spent only 13.3 billion UGX on CRVS services during the same period (equivalent to 1.8% of national ID expenditures). Expenditures on national ID systems are also significant when compared to spending on MDAs that deliver vital services and provide economic and social rights to Ugandans. For example, the Government of Uganda spent 881.1 UGX billion on the Ministry of Health over the same period (if funds from international donors are included, the Ministry of Health spent 4,102.9 trillion UGX), and 770.1 billion UGX on the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD). Within MGLSD’s budget, expenditures on ‘Social Protection for Vulnerable Groups’—a line item that includes SAGE benefits—were 96 Chased Away and Left to Die