Soroti City Council is losing more than 100 million shillings every month to non-compliant service providers contracted to collect local revenue. The findings are contained in the status report of payment of tendered revenue sources for the Financial Year 2022/2023.
The report, covering the period from November 2022 to January 31, 2023, indicates that more than half of the companies which won contracts to collect local revenue in the city have failed to meet their contractual obligations, with 13 out of 21 defaulting in December 2022 and January 2023, denying the city of over 300 million shillings quarterly.
M/s Inofit Investment Limited, owned by Fiona Adie, is top on the list, having failed to remit 50,881,150 million to the city. The company was contracted to collect dues for loading and offloading in the city at a monthly rate of 24.4 million shillings. M/s ROMJESS Investment Ltd, owned by Musa Oroma, the Soroti NRM Registrar, owes the city over 35 million shillings.
Oroma’s company won three contracts to collect revenue from Hotels, offloading in Agip Market, and collecting daily market dues at Kigandani/Moru-Apesur markets. Other defaulters include M/s Premad Limited, owned by the Teso NRM Mobilizer, Teddy Acham, which has not remitted any funds to the city accounts since November 2022.
Daniel Edonyu, the NRM Youth Chairperson in Soroti, has also defaulted with his company, Opuyo Market-Ajoker (liquor fees), among others. However, some contractors blame the city authorities for the losses. Oroma, for instance, told the reporter that there was a conflict of interest in the contracts awarded, without any effort by the technical people to address the impasses.
Adie, on the other hand, accused the city authorities of frustrating her company when they failed to control fraud by imposters in the market. Adie also reported that when her company staff went to the field, they met another group, Soroti Brokers Association, collecting revenue from the sources that Inofit Investment Ltd had been assigned to collect revenue.
But Peter Pex Paak, the Soroti Resident City Commissioner said that although he mediated the teams, he didn’t direct Adie to subcontract Soroti Brokers’ Association.
URN has learned that some individuals and companies are collecting local revenue from different sources, including Soroti Central Market, without signing any contract agreements with Soroti City Council management. Among the companies include Itiira Engineering and General Supplies Ltd and Amorata 2012.
In the Financial Year 2021/2022, Soroti City collected only 22% of UGX. 1.647B expected local revenue collection, according to the Auditor General report. The shortfalls in revenue affected garbage collection in all the two city divisions, and the purchase of two vehicles for revenue collection and enforcement staff worth UGX. 350,000,000.
The Soroti Deputy City Clerk, James Obore, declined to comment on the anomalies in contract awards and noncompliance by contractors when contacted.
-URN
