On March 29th President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, in exercise of his powers, relieved Doris Akol of her office as Commissioner General of Uganda Revenue Authority and replaced her with John Musinguzi Rujoki.
The news caught the entire country by surprise because Mr. Musinguzi was an ‘outsider’ in the tax world- you may say. Unlike Allen Kagina- URA’s Commissioner-General between 2004 and 2014 and Doris Akol- URA’s Commissioner-General between November 2014 and March 2020, who had worked for 12 years and 19 years respectively, before becoming Commissioner Generals, Musinguzi had zero experience at Uganda Revenue Authority.
The closest that he had ever been to tax collection is being a former head of the finance and audit department in the Special Revenue Protection Services (SRPS)- a military unit attached to Uganda Revenue Authority which largely brought an end to smuggling on Ugandan borders with deadly fire- but that was in 2000.
Even though to many, what may seem like lack of in-house experience is turning out as an important ingredient of what is needed to get the job done at URA.
According to a Statehouse source, Musinguzi, was sent to “drain the swamp” and for this job to be done, one had to have both outsider’s unbiased bird’s eye view but also the necessary political support from the highest office in the land.
“Mzee (President Museveni), had obviously lost faith in most of the top managers there,” added the source who asked not to be named.
The same source, had in March, upon the firing of Akol told us that Akol had been largely fired because of her failure to fight corruption at the tax body, although she was clean herself.
“Mzee cited corruption. Although herself she was very clean, her failure to hold to account other officials at various levels of the organization did her in,” intimated the source.
Doris had just served one year and five months of her second 4-year term as Commissioner General when she was relieved of her job.
According to the source, president Museveni had severally complained about URA, even openly in the newspapers and at public functions but no serious action was taken.
It appears Akol who before she ascended to the throne was Commissioner for Legal Affairs and Board Matters (2012-2014) was increasingly finding it difficult to bring to order some of her former colleagues and peers. Some other sources say that some Commissioners had become too ‘well connected’ that Akol found it rather too difficult to swing the axe against them without compromising her job itself.
That, that is why for example in the February 28th 2020 senior executive changes, rather than severely reprimand her colleagues, she merely rotates them- but even then, the opportunity had been presented by a retiring Commissioner, a one Protazio Begumisa.
In the February senior management changes, Akol shuffled four Commissioners and promoted one Assistant Commissioner to the rank of Acting Commissioner. In the changes, Herbert Rusoke, previously the Commissioner Corporate Services, was moved to Internal Audit and Compliance Department as its Commissioner.
Mr. Patrick Mukiibi, previously the Commissioner Tax Investigations became the new Commissioner Corporate Services while Henry Saka, previously the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes became the Commissioner for Tax Investigations. Saka was replaced by Dicksons Kateshumbwa who was previously the Commissioner, Customs Department.
Mr. Abel Kagumire who was the Assistant Commissioner Customs Audit was made the acting Commissioner Customs Department.
Ms. Patience Emily Tumusiime Rubagumya, remained in her position as the Commissioner Legal Services & Board Affairs.
So when, Akol herself was shown the exit and replaced with Musinguzi, the new Commissioner General’s first assignment was all too clear.
How Stanbic Bank CFO Ronald Makata Blends Governance, Technology and Human Leadership to Drive PerformanceMusinguzi, the man for job
Given the job at hand, it appears there perhaps couldn’t have been a better man to do the job, than Musinguzi.
Professionally he had the qualifications- he holds a Master’s degree in Computing and Information systems from the University of Greenwich and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Makerere University. From July 2015 until his appointment, he has been a Senior Presidential Advisor to H.E the President of Uganda and before that he held various IT, project management and business development roles in the private sector as well as head of the finance and audit department in the Special Revenue Protection Services (SRPS). In October 2019, he was also appointed as the Board Chairman of the National IT Authority (NITA).
He, being a close advisor and direct appointee of the president, Musinguzi is too close to power itself, something that Akol needed to fell the untouchable commissioners.
It is therefore not surprising that soonest Musinguzi entered office, his first assignment was to reorganise and clean office.
A statement released by the Authority on May 30th 2020 said that on 28th May, 2020, the URA Board of Directors sat and made recommendations concerning the re-organization and Management of URA.
Following the recommendations, the next day, on May 29th 2020, Kateshumbwa, along with the Commissioner Tax Investigations, Henry Martin Saka and the Assistant Commissioner, Large Taxpayer Office, Silajji Kanyesigye as well as Samuel Kahima had chosen to resign and that the board had accepted their resignations.
Following the resignations, Mukiibi Patrick has been transferred from the position of Commissioner Corporate Services to the position of Commissioner Domestic Taxes.
Mathew Mugabi previously, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Tax Investigations has been appointed as Acting Commissioner Tax Investigations. James Kizza, formerly the Assistant Commissioner Information Technology has been appointed as Acting Commissioner Corporate Services. John Tinka Katungwesi will be Acting Assistant Commissioner Large Taxpayers Office.
Mrs. Patience T. Rubagumya (Commissioner Legal Services and Board Affairs); Herbert Rusoke (Commissioner Internal Audit and Compliance) and Abel Kagumire (Acting Commissioner Customs) retained their jobs.
House-cleaning done; tough job ahead
With the house-cleaning out of the way, Mr. Musinguzi has an even tougher job ahead of him. Together with Juma Kisaame, the former dfcu Bank Managing Director, who is now the new Board Chairman, they must bring in revenues at a time when the economy is on the brink of recession due to Covid-19- the deadly disease sweeping all over the world.
Ministry of Finance has predicted that due to Covid-19 related challenges, there will be tax revenue shortfalls of up to UGX82.4 billion for the remaining period of the FY2019/20 and about UGX187.6 billion in FY2020/21. However, the prolonged prevalence of the disease could cause wider domestic revenue shortfalls by as much as UGX288.3 billion in FY 2019/20 and UGX350 billion in FY2020/21. As a result, preliminary economic growth for FY2019/20 has been revised downwards from 6.0 per cent to between 5.2- 5.7 per cent depending on the severity of the COVID-19 impact on Uganda.
Other than rely on his team, Musinguzi will have to look up to Kisaame- a long time banker, who is credited for transforming dfcu Bank from into one of Uganda’s top five commercial banks. Kisaame transformed dfcu Bank by more than tenfold from a small UGX222 billion asset bank he inherited in 2007 to a UGX2.9 trillion at the end of 2018- with 65 branches and UGX1.4 trillion in customer lending.
By the time he left dfcu, the bank was Uganda’s fourth-biggest bank by assets and third-biggest by lending and deposits and one of only 8 banks in Uganda with more than UGX1 trillion in assets.
