----Original Message Follows----
From: james ssemakula <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [UNAANET] Karim Paid Sh55m To Rwakakooko
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 11:25:43 -0800 (PST)
Museveni's biggest failure is that for 16 years he has failed to establish rule of law. That is his responsibility alone (the buck stops at the presidency).
His second biggest failure, related to the first, is that - over the same period - he systematically de-institutionalized Uganda's power-structure and personalized it, when the exact opposite is what is needed.
All else, e.g. corruption, lack of transparency, patron-client rulership with its attendant sectarianism, and all other symptoms of misrule and abuse of power flow and follow, almost a hand-in-glove manner, from those two deficiencies.
That he has so wantonly squandered so much of his political capital is a question likely to provide fodder to political scientists and sociologists for years to come.
I wouldn't be surprised if his epitaph read something like:
"Never hath a man squandered so much for such a wee bit, or caused as much havoc over so large an area, for so long!"
But then again, what is to be expected of robber-barons and/or war-lords?
"Muniini K. Mulera" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:Friends: It is important to note two things in (and about) the following story: 1. Karim Hirji appealed to the President to have his tax assessment revised downwards. Not to the Revenue Authority, not to the treasury, not to the minister of finance, not to the courts - but to the president. 2. Mr. Elly Rwakakooko, the former URA Chief who allegedly received a bribe from Karim is, I am made understand, a very close relative of Mrs. Museveni. What will it take for us all to really say enough is enough? NO CHANGE? Muniini K. Mulera Karim Paid Sh55m To Rwakakooko
DIGGING UP DATA: Revenue security chiefs Capt Mugalu and Mukindo testify yesterday
Data seized in office raid, URA probe told
By Milton Olupot
New Vision 29/10/02
A 2.4b revenue loss to the State is bad but it is worse when the man hired by the Government to collect taxes is said to have pocketed sh55m bribe to frustrate the effort.
The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) probe commission was yesterday shocked to learn that former URA chief Elly Rwakakooko took sh55m from city tycoon Karim Hirji under unclear circumstances.
Lead commissioner Justice Julia Ssebutinde heard that documents seized by the Special Revenue Protection Services (SRPS) indicated that Rwakakooko was paid by cheque on June 3, 2000.
The commission was investigating a case in which Karim, who owns a string of hotels, is said to have evaded sh2.4b tax from 1996 to 2001.
The SRPS raided the hotels and their go-down in Ntinda and seized evidence, including cash analysis books, two different sets of accounts books for each hotel, one doctored for tax purposes and another official one.
However, Karim petitioned the President, saying the tax assessment was inaccurate and proposed to pay sh755,180,817. Karim said commissions to clients, credit card payments and incentives to clients were not considered when assessing the taxes.
A letter from Fox Odoi, the president�s legal adviser, to Karim said the President�s Office had instructed URA chief Aslund Annebrit to consider his (Karim�s) objections. URA has now asked Karim to pay the sh755,180,817 within a year in three installments.
Odoi�s letter, dated August 23, 2002, said the matter had been referred to Annebrit and Karim was asked to discuss it with her.
Ssebutinde, who was angered by the revelations, criticised the President�s Office for alleged preferential treatment and said the tax law must be followed.
�Sometimes one feels like throwing in the towel on the written parts of the law and follow what is practised. There is no law constituting the Office of the President as an appellate office.
�The CG (Commissioner General) must start from where she stopped: collect the sh2.4b. Either we throw in the towel and go by the practice or we follow the written law without preferential treatment.
�You better advise the CG appropriately. The whole damn batch of you are incompetent. How can you allow this Fox Odoi to advise you? You have the law in your hands. There is no credible reason why you should not collect the sh2.4b. I do not see anyone sacking you for doing right,� she said. She wondered why it took the SRPS to discover the fraud and not the URA audit department.
SRPS discovered that Karim under-declared Value Added Tax (VAT) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) for the Grand Imperial, Equatoria and Botanical Beach hotels from sh44b to sh22.1b.
The witnesses yesterday included Adrian Kyamugina, acting commissioner tax investigation and audit, Naja Twaha, Mrs. K. Otai of the investigation department, SRPS audit department chief Capt. Levi Mugalu, SRPS�s Robert Mukindo and assistant commissioner M. Magumba.
Mukindo said the scam was disclosed to SRPS chief Brig. Kale Kaihura by an informant who said Karim had �pocketed� URA staff who claimed that because of bad laws, taxes could not be recovered.
Ends
Published on: Tuesday, 29th October, 2002
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