The Industrial Court has ordered tax body, URA to pay shs 51 million to its former manager of compliance, David Kalemera for unfairly sacking him.
According to court documents, Kalemera was in 2016 while on leave, informally summoned through his brother and directed to the Internal Audit and Compliance Department (IACD) in Nakawa where he was arrested, held in police custody for four days due to transit diversion issues, and subsequently arraigned about two months later before the Chief Magistrates' Court of Kampala at the Anti-Corruption Court for fraudulent evasion of duty under Section 203 of the East African Community Customs Management Act, 2004.
He was eventually acquitted after a protracted hearing.
However, in March 2017, while criminal proceedings were pending, he was served with an invitation to a disciplinary hearing where he was accused of receiving shs190 million for taxes into a private, disclosed account.
He was later sacked via a letter referencing an undisclosed investigation report, which was denied upon request for his appeal and his subsequent appeal was denied without a hearing.
Through his lawyers, Kalemera ran to the Industrial Court saying the entire disciplinary process was unfair, unlawful, hurried, lacked evidence, lacked particulars, and was predetermined.
In its judgement, the Industrial Court ruled that URA was unfair to Kalemera when it ignored the disciplinary procedure and sacked him without fair hearing.
“ It(URA) flouted its own HRMM(Human Resources Management Manual )and did not provide full particulars of the allegations against the claimant, nor did it give him adequate time to prepare his defence. This was compounded by not providing him with a copy of the investigation report and failing to call witnesses to testify against him. For these reasons, we find that the decision to dismiss the claimant was procedurally unfair,” Justice Anthony Wabwire Musana ruled.
Quoting Section 67 of the Employment Act, the judge the burden is on the employer to prove the reason for termination or dismissal.
“ Under Section 67(2)of the Employment Act, the threshold for a reason for dismissal shall be matters that the employer genuinely believed to exist at the time of dismissal. The employer must establish that the employee was indeed guilty of misconduct,” the judge said.
Consequently, the court ordered that Kalemera be paid shs3.49 million for four weeks’ net pay, shs6.9 million in general damages and shs40.5 million as service award.