Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has resorted to renting offices after running out of spaces to house some of its crucial revenue-generating departments in the 22- storey building in Nakawa, Kampala, Daily Monitor has established.
After about six years of occupying one of the tallest buildings in Kampala’s skyline, the tax body has come to a realisation that they require space beyond what has come to be code-named as URA Towers can offer.
As a result of that, URA has put out a notice notifying the public of their decision to move to a new location while stressing in the communication that the commitment remains the same.
‘To serve you better, we are coming closer to you!’ reads part of the public notice. The new location, according to the public notice, will be at Pearl Tower, Yusuf Lule Road, opposite the Ministry of Health headquarters. Beginning early this week until next Monday, October 20, the Large Taxpayers Office (LTO), the Public Sector and Medium Taxpayer division (PSO and MTO), the risk and strategy department, and finally the petroleum division, will all have their services rendered in the new location.
When contacted, the URA spokesperson, Mr Robert Kalumba, said following what he described as massive recruitment of staff to ‘serve our clients quicker and easier’, we needed more space.
As to whether the shifting of some of the offices to the new location will disrupt services, he said: ‘No, not at all. Because the shifting is being done meticulously and in phases to make sure that no services are disrupted.’
He continued: ‘The whole essence is, we are bringing our services as close to clients as possible, especially to those in the central business district.’
In another interview with the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury at the Ministry of Finance, Mr Patrick Ocailap, whose ministry, URA, is accountable to, it became clear that the tax body has a full mandate to run its operations and activities with the endorsement of the board.
He said: ‘I am not a board member there, however, I am sure the board must have met before this decision was taken.’
Like Mr Kalumba, Mr Ocailap noted that URA has since expanded in personnel and functions to deal with growing sectors such as oil and gas ahead of commercial production sometime next year.
‘I am not sure whether URA Tower anticipated that kind of expansion. And as we enter the oil and gas phase and all the expansion that is going on, I am not sure that the building accommodates all that. However, I would like to believe that the board must have cleared it after considering all pros and cons, besides that, I have nothing useful to add.’
When the Board Chairperson of URA, Dr Juma Kisaame, was contacted, he said he would revert, but did not by press time.
Planning
According to the executive director of Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG), Mr Julius Mukunda, the action of URA speaks to the planning deficit, something most, if not all, government ministries, departments, and agencies tend to suffer from. ‘This should have been anticipated 10 years ago.’ Said Mr Mukunda, adding, ‘the issue now is how affordable is the cost of renting? And shall we get value from it?’
Mr Mukunda is of the view that URA should consider collaboration with entities such as the Local Government which can take up some of the activities occupying space that should have been available for the functions that are being moved to the new location.
The URA Tower in Nakawa is a 22-storey headquarters housing tax body staff. It was commissioned on January 19, 2019, by President Museveni.
The Tower was designed to not only consolidate URA’s scattered offices, but also bring an end to expenses incurred on rent.
The plan was to have it house up to nearly 2,000 staff who have now expanded to about 3,000, while at the same time save the government billions of shillings annually in rent.
Before the construction of the URA Tower at some point the tax prefect’s offices were scattered in multiple rented locations across the city of Kampala, spending $3.5m (about Shs12b) in rent and $1.5m (about Shs5b) in operational expenses annually.
To avoid that expense, in February 2015, the URA began construction of the 22-storey skyscraper costing about Shs140 billion.
URA building
The URA Tower in Nakawa is a 22-storey headquarters housing tax body staff. It was commissioned on January 19, 2019, by President Museveni.
It was designed to not only consolidate URA’s scattered offices, but also bring an end to expenses incurred on rent. The plan was to have it house up to nearly 2,000 staff who have now expanded to about 3,000, while at the same time save government billions spent on rent.