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BIG STORY: URA Pays Shs 15.7bn to ‘Briefcase’ Kenyan Firm SafariTech for Telecom Tax Audit

A storm is brewing in corridors of power after it emerged that Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) paid a staggering Shs 15.7bn to a ‘briefcase’ Kenyan firm, Safaritech, to audit MTN Uganda and other telecom companies but did not follow up to establish whether the company bought servers to do the work.

According to the contract signed in March 2023 under Procurement Reference Number UURA/ITD/CONS/22-23/01880, Safaritech agreed to provide URA with Consultancy Audit Services for the Uganda Telecom Sector in conformity with the provisions of the Contract. 

The two parties agreed to a contract sum of Shs 15,716,832,682 to be paid to Safaritech Limited in consideration of the provision of the audit consultancy services and related services. 

They also agreed that Safaritech would be given a 5% Revenue Share of the revenue recovered by URA from the telecom audit.    

Safaritech had earlier claimed that MTN Uganda had evaded tax worth Shs 1.5tn. 

In the contract with URA, Safaritech committed to procuring servers [Hardware] and software licenses to conduct telecom audits efficiently. 

Safaritech is required to deliver the Servers to URA after they conclude the telecom sector audit. However, an investigation by the president’s office has expressed serious concerns in terms of whether the servers were bought, whether proper due diligence was done as well as irregularities sighted in the contract’s terms that were possibly designed to defraud the country through deliberate deception for unfair or unlawful gain. 

Efforts to obtain a comment from URA Spokesperson, Robert Kalumba were futile as he did not respond to our questions despite repeated reminders. 

It is feared that despite the cost of the equipment (servers and software) being enormous (Shs 15.7bn), no staff of URA has ever gone to inspect the servers and their location in Nairobi.

URA did not physically confirm whether the servers were purchased or whether what was purchased was in tandem with the specifications as agreed in the contract, according to investigators.

“When you consider the fact that Safaritech can’t be traced at the address of 15th Floor, Block A, Muthaiga Square, Muthaiga, Thika Road plus its shoddy history, it raises questions as to whether these serves were bought,” the report to the president, which ChimpReports has seen, reads in part.

“There is suspicion that Safaritech colluded with some individuals in URA to divert the money and instead of procuring the servers, they only paid for a remote Amazon Server for temporary use.”

Moreso, it remains unclear why government would allow such private telephone records of Ugandans to be stored abroad.

Asked to provide any form of evidence regarding pictures or documentation, the official, who preferred not to be named, was elusive.

Pressed to explain if URA staff had physically confirmed the presence of the servers in Nairobi, the Safaritech official responded: “The servers are there.” 

When asked to provide evidence that Safaritech had a rented office in Nairobi, Kenya, the official observed: “Safaritech doesn’t rent. It owns its building in Nairobi.” 

ChimpReports pressed safariTech to provide evidence to back up its claims of owning the building in Nairobi but the official simply responded: “Safaritech is very solid. Before Safaritech signed a contract with URA, URA sent its team to Nairobi to do due diligence and discovered that the company was solid.” 

 It remains unclear where URA officials were taken during their trip to Nairobi.

This is because investigators who went to the physical address of Safaritech Limited, which is mentioned in the Contract with URA were surprised to find the address of 15th Floor, Block A, Muthaiga Square, Muthaiga, Thika Road shows no sign of any activity as the floor was found to be empty. 

The caretakers said they had not had a tenant called Safaritech in recent times. 

By ChimpReports