The secondary textbook procurement is following strict international bidding guidelines. This according to the Uganda Publishers Association will disadvantage local and small publishers who don’t have large capital outlays.  Publishers noted that the requirement of annual turnover of 1.5 times the total bid security was too high. On average publishers would be required to present books of accounts reflecting a two year turnover of US$26,370,340, which amount the publishers say, even government has not spent on books in the last five years. There was a unanimous agreement that this requirement be dropped as it is intended to stifle competition and eliminate bidders from Uganda.

Although education is the main consumer of textbooks, book procurement budgets by government have been on a general decline especially in the last five years. This has not only constrained textbook publishers incomes especially local ones, but also limited their exposure to and experience in handling very large book supply contracts. The Uganda Publishers Association has therefore argued that a requirement for publishers to show evidence of successful completion of 2 similar contracts is unfair to the local publishers. They noted that in the last five years, there has been no textbooks procurement of this volume of business and therefore government cannot use it as a measure of a publisher’s financial capability and ability to deliver on a bid.

This World Bank support to UPPETT has been a subject of fierce debate since January 2009. Publishers  had voiced opposition to the loan agreement requiring government to buy one title for each subject for all schools across the country which was against the established  textbook policy. Government however reassured publishers that this would be a one-time procurement.