Ugandan legislators investigating the alleged mishandling of the two projects have ordered a forensic audit. The country's Ministry of ICT has over the past few months been battling allegations of fraud and mismanagement of the $30 million first phase of the project, which was contracted to China's Huawei Technologies.

Work has been stopped for several weeks and the government is not saying when it will be resumed.

"The construction of the national backbone fiber has been suspended until all investigations into the project are concluded by the auditor general," said David Kirya, a spokesman for the ICT ministry.

The move came after industry insiders first raised a red flag two months ago, in comments on a popular mailing list, . List members pointed out irregularities regarding the recruitment of board members for the newly created National Information Technology Agency (NITA) Uganda -- the management arm of the ICT ministry. The ministry also failed to contract a third-party technology entity or set up a special-purpose vehicle to manage the two projects, and as a result sections of the fiber network have been damaged and equipment stolen, Badru Ntege, a technology enthusiast and investor, pointed out.

A tour of the two projects by the legislators on the parliamentary ICT committee confirmed Ntege's comments.