Is URA frustrating its contracted auctioneers?

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda Revenue Authority-URA has left a group of contracted auctioneers asking questions after being reportedly excluded from the next auction.

The auction was supposed to take place in early October and the auctioneers were informed to get ready for the task as is usually the case, however, for unknown reasons, four months have elapsed.

One of the contracted auctioneers, who opted not to go on record for fear of being reproached, said they were informed that they had been selected to do the job, but that the Commissioner General, allegedly stopped the process.

“The auction is supposed to take place immediately after the valuation. It doesn’t even take a month, but now it is more than four months,” says the auctioneer.

When asked why, he said, the auctioneers suspect that the process was halted to exclude them and “hand it over to some other person or keep some items”, an act they term as corruption.

“They had awarded it to us, but when they took it to the Commissioner General, we were told he had refused to approve us and things stagnated,” he said, but added that the selection process is done internally.

Officials contacted for a comment all referred us to the tax body’s spokesperson, Robert Kalumba, the public and corporate affairs manager, who neither picked out calls nor responded to questions submitted to him via his mobile phone line.

The URA keeps a supplier database which also consists of service providers including auctioneers, who or part of whom are called to conduct the auctions depending on the type and size.

The most popular action items are motor vehicles whose importers have failed to clear and remove from the warehouse after a given time.

Asked as to what could cause a diversion from the usual procedure, the auctioneer said they suspect there are specific vehicles that the officials want for themselves without competing for them with the public.

“An action is due somewhere towards the end of March and the public has been informed,” another official said, without referring to the claims by the auctioneers about improperly delaying the process.

The next auction is now slated for the end of March with public viewing of the auction items taking place between March 17 to 21 and the bidding process will run between March 22 and March 24, 2025.

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URN