By Immaculate Wanyenze
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has for long emphasized integrity, having gone through a transformation drive which started in 2005.
Recently, URA revised its corporate values and introduced Integrity as one of the three core values. The more integrity is exhibited in the behavior of URA staff and in the performance of its systems and processes, the more URA shall strengthen the trust between herself and taxpayers.
As the world marks the International Anti-Corruption Day 2021 under the theme: “Promoting Active Citizen participation in social accountability, URA believes that the success of Uganda’s economic wellbeing is closely tied to integrity. We are convinced that enhancing integrity will rebuild the trust between URA and all her internal and external stakeholders. And as such, the URA Board of Directors and Management have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of corruption through the following initiatives;
The Whistleblower Platform: Here taxpayers can easily and discreetly report fraud, corruption incidences, conflicts of interest by calling 0772141075 or our Toll Free lines on; 0800117000/0800217000 or by sending an email to services@ura.go.ug. In addition, taxpayers can also report cases of integrity among themselves and if the reports yield revenue, they will be rewarded for helping URA recover undeclared taxes.
URA has put in place new policies and reviewed the existing ones to guide and protect its staff and to ensure excellent service to our clients. The reviewed policies include; URA Code of Conduct, URA Offence Schedule, and Lifestyle Audit Policy. Other policies still under review will address fraud, general harassment, sexual harassment, abuse of Authority, giving and receiving of gifts.
To protect all Taxpayers from Exposure to Integrity: The URA Board elevated the internal compliance function from a Section to a Division under the Commissioner General’s Office. The Division is tasked with responsibility to enhance internal compliance and safeguard the reputation of URA.
URA has recently developed and approved a Comprehensive Integrity Strategy that will empower all staff to serve with the highest level of integrity.
URA has also introduced lifestyle audits as a key tool to prevent fraudulent accumulation of wealth.
To Improve URA’s Services to Taxpayers: URA is improving her systems and processes to make them serve clients better by being simple, accessible, transparent and reliable.
URA launched the Change and Culture Transformation initiative which among other things, is improving and inspiring all URA staff to live with integrity, exude patriotism and always serve professionally.
As URA we acknowledge that corruption is a vice that slows economic development and contributes to government instability and thus we can only win if we join forces. Our partnership will go a long way in giving our taxpayers the service experience they deserve from URA.
URA is therefore determined to create a corruption-free business environment for taxpayers to enjoy improved service delivery.
The author is a media officer at URA
