The Uganda Revenue Authority-URA board has appointed new commissioners to replace those fired in May 2020.
The appointments made after August 26, 2020, sitting saw Abel Kagumire appointed as the commissioner customs. Kagumire had been acting in the position since early this year.
Richard Kariisa has also been appointed the commissioner domestic taxes while John Tinka Katungwensi has been appointed assistant commissioner in charge of large taxpayers, according to a brief from the tax body.
The new appointments replace former commissioners Dickson Kateshumbwa, Henry Saka, and Silajji Kanyesigye who were fired in May. Kateshumbwa has since moved to stand for the Sheema Municipality Parliamentary seat.
According to internal staff, a memo issued by the board secretary Ms. Patience Rubagumya, the URA board held a special meeting on August 26 and interviewed candidates for the senior management positions in the Departments of Customs, Corporate Services, and Domestic Taxes.
Rubagumya further noted that the appointments are effective on September 1, 2020.
“The candidates who were shortlisted for the position of AC HR, AC BP, and AC Trade will be interviewed by the board of directors on Friday 28, 2020.
By order of the board,” she said.
Sources at URA intimated to this website that the reshuffles are the start of the “clean-up act” spearheaded by Mr. Musinguzi in a bid to eliminate the staff believed to have been loyal to former Customs commissioner Dicksons Kateshumbwa.
President Yoweri Museveni later said after the 2020/21 budget address that the former URA commissioners were sacked because of corruption.
There has been a lot of corruption in URA. That one, I have cleaned…wherever there is corruption, we shall get you like we cleared the URA crowd,” Museveni said.
The new appointments have been among URA’s senior staff. Abel Kagumire was in customs, Kariisa in internal audit while Katungwensi was a tax administrator.
URA got a new commissioner-general John Musinguzi Rujoki in March, replacing Doris Akol who had been head of the institution since 2015.