By Ben Musanje
National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) is set to phase out its imported financial management system from South Africa and replace it with an internally developed platform as the utility seeks to deepen digitalization and cut expenditure on externally sourced systems.
NWSC Managing Director Eng. Dr. Silver Mugisha said the corporation is currently testing the new financial management system developed by its own staff, with full implementation expected within the next one or two months.
Mugisha said the new system is part of NWSC’s broader strategy of building internal technological capacity instead of spending heavily on consultants and imported software.
“We have now a new finance management system, better than the other one which was imported,” Mugisha said during a media engagement at NWSC’s International Resource Centre in Bugolobi, Kampala, on Friday.
He was speaking during a media engagement at the corporation’s International Resource Centre (IREC) along Old Port Bell Road in Bugolobi, Kampala, on Friday. The engagement followed a tour of some of NWSC’s projects in the Greater Kampala area.
He said the corporation had for years relied on an extensive financial management system imported from South Africa, but had reached a point where it could develop and maintain its own alternative.
Mugisha argued that Ugandan professionals have the technical capacity to develop systems required by public institutions, reducing the need to purchase expensive foreign solutions.
The shift comes as NWSC reports a sharp improvement in its financial performance over the past decade.
Mugisha said the corporation’s surplus before depreciation had increased from about Shs40 billion a decade ago to approximately Shs197 billion in the latest figures.
However, he cautioned against interpreting the Shs197 billion as cash available to the corporation.
He explained that the figure is based on accrual accounting, under which income is recorded when it is invoiced while expenditure is captured when it is committed.
The latest financial figure is also yet to be confirmed by an ongoing external audit, which Mugisha said is expected to be completed within one or two months.
Last year, the corporation’s surplus before depreciation stood at about Shs162 billion, according to Mugisha.
He said NWSC’s push towards internally developed systems is intended to improve efficiency while keeping costs down.
“For us, I think in the last 30 years, we have not bought any system. We have instead been phasing out systems which we have bought,” he said.
The financial management system is among the last major imported systems that NWSC intends to replace.
Mugisha said the corporation has also developed several other digital platforms internally, including its billing and electronic payment systems, as well as systems supporting procurement, human resources and water-quality monitoring.
The MD said the decision to build systems internally had also proved useful when NWSC suffered a cyberattack in 2023.
According to Mugisha, the attack affected some system logs, but NWSC’s internal technical teams were able to restore the systems quickly because they understood how the platforms had been developed.
The billing and electronic payment systems, he said, were restored in roughly a day.
The corporation subsequently launched a forensic investigation into the cyberattack.
Mugisha said investigators obtained leads involving some staff, although the evidence was not sufficient, in management’s assessment, to pursue criminal prosecution.
NWSC instead exercised its powers under its Human Resource Manual to terminate the services of some employees, while taking other disciplinary measures and strengthening its cybersecurity controls.
Beyond financial technology, Mugisha said NWSC is increasingly relying on its own engineers to design water infrastructure.
He cited water projects in Hoima, Karungi, Rushere, Champas, Kapeka and Kapchorwa as examples of projects whose designs were developed by NWSC staff.
He said the approach reduces the corporation’s dependence on consultants and allows it to retain technical knowledge within the institution.
Mugisha also pointed to internal audits as another mechanism through which NWSC seeks to protect its finances.
He said the corporation launches special audits whenever allegations of financial impropriety or questionable expenditure arise.
One of the cases currently under scrutiny involves a contractor’s claim relating to the Kagera water project.
Mugisha said NWSC was working to quantify the contractor’s claim and establish the corporation’s own entitlements before any payment is considered.
He said the process was necessary because contractors may submit claims for additional work while the corporation may also have suffered losses or incurred costs attributable to the contractor.
“We are also going to say, you also made us lose A, B, C. Let’s reconcile,” he said.
Mugisha also revisited the controversial procurement of prepaid water meters in 2017, rejecting allegations that Shs17 billion linked to the meters had been channelled to him.
He said the meters had presented operational challenges because NWSC was relatively unfamiliar with the technology at the time.
The corporation subsequently conducted technical and performance audits of the procurement.
According to Mugisha, the process established a potential loss of approximately US$380,000, which was recovered by deducting the amount from the supplier’s invoices.
He said the matter was later reviewed and closed.
The MD said NWSC’s financial-management strategy is also supported by an internal incentive system that rewards employees who achieve or exceed targets.
The corporation also uses structured task forces and overtime arrangements to allow employees to undertake work that might otherwise be outsourced to consultants.
Mugisha said NWSC recently completed its strategic plan, customer checks and integrated financial reporting using largely internal staff.
The approach, he said, is intended to ensure that the corporation gets maximum value from its employees while reducing expenditure on external expertise.
The planned replacement of the imported financial management system therefore represents more than a software upgrade, according to Mugisha. It is part of a wider effort by NWSC to build internal technological and professional capacity, reduce dependence on external service providers and improve control over its financial and operational systems.
Mugisha said the new platform is expected to become fully operational within the next one or two months, after which the existing South African system will be phased out. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
