Like many other institutions in the country, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) continues to be affected by the challenges of corruption and misconduct tendencies.
As recently highlighted by President Yoweri Museveni, the effects have had far reaching consequences especially on the tax collections.
Speaking at the Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile Memorial lecture on Friday, the President said corruption in URA is the reason for under collection of tax, something he said continues to slow economic development.
Aside Museveni’s remarks, some members of public have in the past raised concerns over corruption and misconduct among some of the URA staff.
However, the tax collecting body maintains that whereas there are still reported cases of corruption and misconduct in the institution, they are on the right track in terms of combating the vices.
Recently, URA’s spokesperson, Ibrahim Bbosa, noted that the body has in the past two years adopted wide-ranging measures to eradicate corruption in the institution.
One of these measures he pointed out is the lifestyle audit policy which URA adopted last year to catch corrupt employees with unexplained wealth.
According to URA, the audit is carried out based on information received from informers, general public, media, law enforcement agencies, among other sources indicating that a staff may have a standard of living that is not consistent with his or her known sources of income.
Furthermore, Bbosa says they have simplified and automated URA systems and processes by introducing instant Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), thereby reducing the margin for corruption.
“We have introduced instant TIN, thereby reducing the time required to obtain one and significantly trimming the wingspan of crafty middleman taking advantage of the old process,” Bbosa said.
Besides corruption, fraud, dishonesty, poor service attitude and counterproductive behaviour of some URA staff towards taxpayers have also been a concern to many.
To fight this, URA has introduced Comprehensive Integrity Strategy where staff are guided and held accountable for living a life of integrity. This has been done through sharing aggressive information and knowledge between employees and taxpayers.
The strategy according to URA is designed to guide individuals to effectively carry out their responsibilities and assert their rights.
Bringing the culprits to book
Since heightening several corruption-eradicating measures, URA has previously been able to identify and arrest corrupt and unprofessional staff.
Over the past two years, 10 staff have been expelled from their jobs while 18 have been suspended. In December alone, three staff were terminated and two suspended for integrity issues.
According to Bbosa, all these initiatives to fight corruption and instil integrity are producing early signs and indications that they are gaining the upper hand and will triumph.
“We believe that the war against corruption is one that can be won. We are noticing improvement in the public goodwill towards URA, which we do not take for granted. Internally, there are a growing number of staff publicly committing to operate with integrity,” he says.
