In a troubling revelation from Uganda’s telecom sector, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), led by Commissioner General John Musinguzi, together with former State Minister for ICT Hon. Peter Ogwang, are implicated in the embezzlement of a staggering UGX 5 trillion in taxes from major telecommunications companies MTN and Airtel.
The tax loss estimated from MTN and Airtel stands at UGX 5 trillion, with a portion of UGX 15.8 billion also embezzled in relation to the taxes. These large sums highlight severe financial misconduct tied to the handling and monitoring of telecom revenues
To tackle the tax discrepancies, the then ICT Minister and URA management suggested installing monitoring servers within telecom companies to accurately track revenue and tax obligations. This solution was expected to curb further tax losses by bringing transparency.
However, Hon. Peter Ogwang, the former State Minister for ICT, reportedly received a corruption payment of UGX 5 billion from Airtel managers to back off from pursuing the issue. Following this, his involvement in the telecom tax scrutiny ceased.
Later, Grace Aine, an under-qualified URA officer appointed by John Musinguzi after sidelining an expert audit team, reportedly received a bribe of UGX 4 billion from Airtel managers to halt the investigation.
After some time, John Musinguzi returned to work with the expert audit team that included Richard Mwani, Robert Mutebi, and Andrew Chege. Despite this, the group is accused of embezzling the UGX 15.8 billion that was allocated to import the monitoring servers.
The contract for the servers was awarded to MS Safaritec Ltd, a company based in Kenya, which investigations show did not exist and never imported any servers. The allocated funds meant for this critical monitoring infrastructure were never account
This scandal involving URA leadership, the former State Minister for ICT, and telecom managers reveals deep-rooted corruption that has cost Uganda dearly. The embezzlement of UGX 5 trillion in taxes, the bribes totaling UGX 9 billion to silence investigations, and the disappearance of UGX 15.8 billion intended for monitoring servers expose serious governance failures that urgently demand accountability.
