2 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 3

TABLE
of
CONTENTS

4-9 Foreword from

managment

26 URA Security
over the years 28 URA Museum 20 Future IT

10 Previous CSD
Management since 2005 12 Finance
Leadership 14 The Transformation of
Revenue Accounting

16 The ERP
Transformation 18 Procurement
made easy 22 CSD
Milestones

24 Information
Technology Security 27 IT Service
Desk 30 Our achievements
over the years

32 Evolution
of CSD 34 My memorable
moment in URA 36 Life on the
waters

40 Pictorial
4 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
FOREWORD
From the Commissioner Corporate Services
...I must say that I Dear Staff,
I
have been digging
t is with great pleasure and
tirelessly and humility that I greet and
am proud to say welcome you to this 1st
edition of The Broadcast.
we have had a
This magazine describes who
bountiful harvest we are, and celebrates what we
for the staff... have achieved over the years. It
looks at the support we continue
to provide, collectively and
individually, often times against
incredible odds, towards the
revenue mobilization initiatives.
I became Commissioner
Corporate Services in 2017, after
Micheal Otonga who left big
shoes for me to fill. It has been
3 years, and I must say as a
department we have achieved a
lot starting from Improvement
in office accommodation, staff
welfare, Competitive Rewards and
Recognition, Staff Development.
As I was being welcomed as CCS
by senior management I was
given a hoe, basket and some
other items. I must say that I
have been digging tirelessly and
I am proud to say we have had
a bountiful harvest for the staff
some of which is reflected in this
magazine.
It is an exciting, entertaining,
hilarious but also informative,
inspiring and invigorating look
back at the long and continuing
journey of the Corporate Services
Department. It chronicles the
hurdles that you overcome daily
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 5
across the country (on land, water and
cyberspace), and the accounts of people
whose lives you continue to touch.
As we hit the surplus this year,
celebrations within the department
were under the “Zaweze” theme. We hit
the road to Lake Bunyonyi, and it was
indeed a marvelous experience. The
spectacular natural vistas and your happy
companionship made the occasion quite
fantastic.
I want to pledge to staff, that as CSD in
this FY 2019-2020 we are doing everything
within our means to make it even more
successful. We have so many innovations
and projects in the oven. Let’s go beyond
the wildest expectations. Let’s join hands
and together make this the year of the
Corporate Services Department.
6 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
I
thank God and give all the glory to Him
for the year 2018/2019 which we have just
concluded with great success. I appreciate
the leadership of our Commissioner General
Doris and the entire Senior Management team
and most especially our Commissioner Herbert
for relentlessly focusing all of us on the ball
until it was safely in the net.
In the course of the year the Finance team has
taken care of the Statutory Financial Reporting
and compliance requirements, kept you up to
date with the Revenue outturn on a daily basis,
availed you funds to execute your day to day
activities through budget management and
timely payment of your dues as well as timely
access to quality supplies to support your
service delivery. We are always delighted to
serve you and desire to make your experience
with us a pleasurable one.
In the year just gone by we experienced great
change as we rolled out the second phase
FOREWORD
From Assistant
Commissioner Finance
modules of the Enterprise resource planning
Solution. This phase brought on board many
more self service functions available at just a
click of a button in the comfort of your offices.
This increased the convenience of service
delivery to our clients across the organization
as well as reducing the cost of doing business
overall. I thank you all for embracing the
change and support this modernization drive.
Change and transformation is still on going
and we shall soon roll out the Document
Management solution which will further
consolidate the gains of automation in URA.
It is an exciting time to serve our nation and
I continue to call upon us all to reach for the
highest goals. Good is not enough, we must go
for greatness. Let us challenge ourselves and
think beyond our current comfort.
At Finance we are at your service, please do
reach out to us whenever you have need.
Looking forward to a great harvest in 2019/2020
Diana Kisaka
Assistant Commissioner Finance
FOREWORD
From Assistant Commissioner
Information Technology
T
he last financial year brought
several victories for URA and I
could not be more proud of the
team of gallant men and women
I lead that have made the victories in IT
possible.
In November last year we launched the
IT transformation project that is going to
With the clear strategy of enhancing our IT
focus on improving IT governance, IT service
services we have planned major upgrades
quality and improve client and stakeholder
on several of our applications. The
satisfaction. The team will look into how
foundation on which ASYCUDA World runs,
URA can leverage big data analytics,
soClass, has been upgraded to the latest
Internet of things concepts (IOT), Artificial
version while the technology changes to
intelligence and block chain technologies
ASYCUDA world are in progress which will
to improve on processing time, taxpayer
provide a responsive application that is
segmentation and risk analysis
light weight offering more stability and a
better user experience.
As IT, we pledge to continue passionately
supporting the business while offering
We have also enhanced our infrastructure
reliable IT services for our clients. We are
by introducing the Oracle super cluster
ready to do much more to creatively and
M8, a major upgrade of the M7 since
cost effectively meet our clients’ needs
2014. Once completed, it brings huge
to enable URA become the model of
improvements in the computing and
best practice and innovation in revenue
storage of our applications and drastically
administration.
reduces the downtime we have been
With this first issue of the CSD magazine I
experiencing. The data center has also
hope we can proudly look back at our past
had a major upgrade in its cooling system
wins and be encouraged to ACT NOW in
ensuring that all our equipment is working
order to pocket another big B.
in an optimum environment. All these
improvements and many more in the
“IT, Power the business”
pipe line are aimed at optimizing the use
of Technology and improving IT service
James Kizza
quality. Assistant Commissioner Information Technology
8 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
FOREWORD
From Assistant
Commissioner Administration
G
reetings from the Landlord, it is a pleasure
to be writing to you in the 1st Edition of
The Corporate. As a Landlord, my efforts
are all geared towards ensuring that all
tenants are comfortable and in position to collect
the needed revenue. So much has happened and so
much is yet to happen, we have carried out a lot of
office improvements e. g The URA Café, Renovation
of upcountry offices, TID lab, a lot of office repairs
all aimed at providing a comfortable working
environment.
As we sail through this financial year, there are
on-going initiatives for improving our working
environment’s including the construction of regional
offices in Gulu, Mbale, construction of boreholes,
construction of the contact centre, installation of
smart gate at URA Main gate, installation of access
control systems across all URA Offices in the country,
improvement of parking.
As we enjoy The Broadcast, its just a snippet into
what CSD has accomplished, much more has been
done that cannot be put on paper.
I wish you all the best in this financial year.
Richard Kariisa
Assistant Commissioner Administration
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 9
G
reetings Team Surplus. We have come
towards the end of the 2nd Quarter and
Operation ACT NOW is upon us. To date, the
revenue performance stands at 78.56% with
a gap of 2.86bn towards the cumulative target of
5.5 Trillion for this quarter. This however should not
derail us but rather give us the enthusiasm that we
can still make it.
As the support department, all our initiatives
are geared towards facilitating the collecting
fever immunization. This was a drive to ensure that
departments in order to achieve the set target.
you know your health status because it is key for
productivity. These services were also extended to
From the HR perspective, we have delivered the
staff in the mid-western region. Over one thousand
following capacity improvements in line with the
(1000) staff and their dependents attended the
URA’s Employee Value Proposition(EVP) offering;
health camps and their health issues attended to.
Visionary Leadership: URA has invested in the
Corporate Brand Strength: As part of taxpayer
development of its leaders to ensure business
appreciation, we were privileged to have
continuity and sustainability given that 49% of its
participated in the Corporate Social Responsibility,
Gen X workforce will be retiring in the next 5 years.
an activity where each one of us participated directly
URA has trained leaders under the STEER Program,
or indirectly. We also run an employment hub
CATA Leadership Development Program and the
“Bomba ya Business” at the URA Staff Appreciation
WCO Leadership Development Program.
Exhibition. This is a true representation of servant
leadership towards identifying with society and
Talent Development: URA considers its intellectual
contributing to addressing social challenges faced
capital as one of its greatest assets and therefore
by our people – institutions, communities and
skilling of her workforce is key on the revenue
organizations were visited and contributions made
mobilization agenda. URA has while implementing
towards their activities.
the staff development agenda, adopted the 70:20:10
rule of development that provides for both formal
Competitive Rewards and Recognition: This year
and informal learning at the work place where 70%
URA won the FUE Employer of the Year Award under
is informal personal learning through experience
the Public Service category. More awards have been
on the job, 20% through mentoring and coaching
won by URA including the CIOO Awards for IT.
and 10% through the formal class learning. The
ITRAT (Integrated Tax and Revenue Administration
These awards are a recognition driver of individual
Training program has been reviewed and is currently
and corporate capabilities and the employee
being delivered using the above approach with two
performance. I call upon all, leaders to take up this
classes running concurrently.
initiative and continuously reward/ recognize those
who have performed well under their jurisdictions.
The EAC Customs Certificate is also running with
fifty-six (56) participants, twenty (20) of which are
Finally, I charge each one of you to keep your eyes
being trained through the e-learning platform.
on the ball and ACT NOW to enable staff realize the
current targets as well as recover lost ground.
Employee Well- Being: Your Health Comes First is
the tagline for this pillar. This year, through the
“Developing Uganda Together”
health week, medical services have been brought
closer to you through the health week where
staff have been able to access medical care from William Kiganda
nutritionist, dentists, ophthalmologists, and yellow Assistant Commissioner Human Resource
10 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1

PREVIOUS CSD MANAGEMENT SINCE 2005 Note from the editor

Dear Staff,
On behalf of the entire editorial
committee, I would like to
welcome you to the inaugural
CSD Broadcast Magazine. This
publication was inspired by the
need to celebrate the various
categories of staff in CSD that
toil away tirelessly behind
the scenes to ensure that URA
fulfils its targets and mandate.
the long hours, the physical perils,
the innumerable hardships, the
thrilling innovations, the resilient
spirit and the incredible teamwork
that has made so much success
possible over the years.
We have refrained from editing
the personal accounts wherever
possible so that readers can
appreciate the raw authenticity
and emotions of the story teller.

Too often the amazing efforts I am truly thankfully for the

Walala Genda Micheal Otonga Ronald Kaboha and great sacrifices by staff are very hardworking and resilient
2005 to 2008 2008 to 2017 Chief Editor:
overshadowed by the general editorial team, which made an
Commissioner Corporate Services.
euphoria of exceeded targets. apparently impossible venture
Commissioner Corporate Services.
Assistant Commissioner Finance, Now that URA has achieved a at the beginning, a thoroughly
2005 - 2008 historical tax collection surplus, enjoyable journey all through to
we bring you those stories, as its successful conclusion.
told by the staff themselves, of Enjoy your reading

Meet the editorial team

Evelyn Nyakato. RIP Nakabaale Sam Lubega Steven

2005 to 2010 2005 to 2011 2005 to 2011

Assistant Commissioner Assistant Commissioner Assistant Commissioner

Administration. Information Technology. Human Resource.

Latete Teddy Nanozi Gertrude Christine Ikono Cleopatra Tusiime Silver

Edna Rugumayo Vincent Seruma

2008 to 2014 2011 to 2016

Assistant Commissioner Assistant Commissioner Human

Finance. Resource.

Musinguzi Keith Irene Kisakye Sarah Nyamwenge Myra Ochwo

 Finance
12 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
Leadership
ACF - Diana Kisaka Mwondha - Mrs.
I first met Diana on 2nd September 2013 in her
capacity then as Ag. ACF. By then Mrs. Edna
Rugumayo the substantive ACF was away on
leave but at the same time preparing for her
retirement. That is the day I joined URA as a
Finance Officer. Yes, it has been almost 6 years
already! I thought then that I would probably
work in URA for just 3 years and off I go, but
trust me, 6 years and I am still comfortably
counting.
On that specific day, she looked professional,
calm but warm. She had a positive outlook
and in her own words, she told the three of
us “take time to learn and you will enjoy your
stay in URA”. This statement still holds and
will hold always. Take time to learn and you
will enjoy your stay wherever.
Diana is a focused lady and to me she knows
what she wants and goes for it. Diana is a
process person and always wants things
done the right way. She would rather stop or
halt a transaction until the right procedure is
attained. Diana is someone who tells the truth
whether or not it is nice to the ears. Some
people would say she is an iron lady. So one
day in 2019, she shed tears!!! Yes, she cried! The
girls in finance organized a baby shower and
trust me, I had never seen a surprise go so well
until I saw that one. She had no clue thanks to
Ronald her driver who never spilled the beans.
On behalf of the team, I would like to thank
Diana for the able leadership you offer us! We
excel in what we do because you led us into
excellence. May the sky be the starting point
for your success!
CPA Ceasar Labeja
Hmm, Ceasar, what can I say?
Ceasar fitted well the shoes of his former boss
Hajj Mpaata Mohammed. Ceasar always brings
a light moment in the office. He makes everyone
comfortable. When you work with Ceasar, you
will know an example of a good boss. He does
not hold onto wrongs. He has a polite way of
correcting you when you go wrong and he has a
way of making everyone feel at home. He refers
to everyone in Finance including our mama
(Office Admin) and our IT “consultant” as CPA.
He will always offer you a seat even if you are
not his visitor. Ceasar is calm even in the midst
of the highest level of pressure. You can never
find Ceasar unhappy or stressed out! May be
because he eats food from Olam restaurant.
Ceasar is always looking out for what can go
right next and he does not dwell on what
has gone wrong. Ceasar is a person, when
you come in late and you are so worried of
how to enter the office, he will spot you at
a distance and say “CPA so and so, you are
welcome, how are you, please have a seat
and take a cup of coffee” and that will be it.
CPA Ceasar is a “storm calmer” and he has
mastered his game. Ceasar will tell you NO
and you will not even feel like it is a NO. One
more thing, you need to see Ceasar cheering
his team during engagements………. passion!
Victoria Ronah Semugenyi
“The new kid on the block” Vicky is a real
example of “go beyond and reach new
heights”. She is one of those who disobeyed
the law of hierarchy and step by step
progress on the organization ladder. Vicky
has a contagious smile and a glow on the
face. To me, Vicky is an example “everything
is possible if you put your mind to it”. Having
been an officer at the revenue reconciliation
unit, she took a leap of faith and became a
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 13
Manager Management Accounting. A position
that everyone thought was tough. When
Charles Lukwago left URA, everyone thought
he had left a big unfillable gap, but trust me,
when Vicky took over the job, there has never
been any crisis and business is better than
usual. Vicky, this is just the beginning!
Our Lady-Lolitah Mboni
Lady Mboni is calm and speaks calmly like
the word! - Theodore Roosevelt said “the best
leader is the one who has sense enough to
pick good men to do what he wants done, and
self-restraint enough to keep from meddling
with them while they do it”. Lolitah is such
a leader. From the time she was rotated to
finance, she has embraced her job in finance
like she has been here longer! In the words
of one of her officers, “Lolitah is a sharp lady,
processes fast and she is reserved” what more
can I add?
A combination of the four above is the pillar
of the Face of Change…………. Finance. They
actually play football during our Finance
retreats!
Written by Christine Ikono
14 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
The
Transformation
of Revenue
Accounting
A
t the inception of URA, the revenue
accounting process was majorly
manual. We had several offices
throughout the country and
each of these offices had a cashier who
was expected to account for the revenue
received on any particular day.
The Kampala based offices were
expected to deliver their cashbooks on
a daily basis that is, the cashbook for
Monday was supposed to be delivered to
Headquarters on Tuesday. These offices
included Kampala Central, Kampala
Collection office, Rubaga, Makindye,
Customs House, Mukono, Bwaise, Portbell
& Nakawa. However, before delivering
the cashbooks, the cashier was expected
to call Headquarters to provide the total
collections for the day. The cashbooks for
the upcountry offices were collected at the
end of the month by the Finance inspectors
who were delivering the cashbooks by
8th of the following month. The Revenue
Accounting Officers would then post these
details manually into the accounting
system. The cashbooks were very many
and with big volumes especially for the
busy stations like Kampala Central. There
were always delays in the reporting of this
revenue and a lot of reconciliation was
always done.
Around the year 2000, the Electronic
Cashbook (ECB) was introduced. Each
station was expected to produce a
cashbook and then the Accounting Officers
were accessing the cashbooks to establish
the accuracy of the hard copy and then
post into the system. At around the same
time, the Asycuda system was introduced
and this was used to report the customs
revenue. The Accounting officers were
given access to this and it’s what they
were using to report the customs revenue.
Each station had around one cashbook to
which all the daily /monthly statements
were filed. For the Kampala based stations
especially Kampala Central, it could have
like three very big volumes of cashbooks in
a month!!
Towards the end of the year 2017, eTax was
introduced. It was a phased implementation
and this saw a great reduction in the number
of cashbooks that were received by the
revenue accounting team. Officers were
given access to Etax and all the posting
was completed by the data downloaded.
There was no interface between etax and
the accounting system and this meant that
all the coding and posting and reporting
was completely manual. You download
data from etax and export it to excel then
you code these data accordingly that is by
department, tax head, station and date after
which this data would be exported to the
accounting system. Different reports were
formulated in the accounting system which
were used to report all the data. Given the
degree of manipulation that was being done,
the revenue was subject to errors much as
this was checked to a level of about 95%
accuracy. This improved on the reporting
times of revenue to the stakeholders to
around 8th of the following month.
On the 19th November 2018, a new system
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 15
ERP was introduced and this is what we are
using at present. We have an interface with
eTax and all the data is downloaded and
staged by the relation/interface of the two
systems. A mail is received by the revenue
team indicating what has been processed. The
team then logs on to the system, validates
the information/data and then posts all
the revenue. The revenue collected in any
particular day is accurate to about 95% of the
previous day’s collection the other percentage
being transactions that have not been notified
to eTax. The part that I notified later will be
dropped and this is what needs reconciliation
and then manually posted using a function in
ERP called WebAdi. This allows large volumes of
data to be posted in the shortest time possible.
Errors are very minimal since the system keeps
on checking the codes that have been used
and it does not accept the data if the coding
is wrong. We are able to produce timely and
accurate reports in the shortest time. The level
of reconciliation needed has greatly reduced.
Written by Joanita Gwowoleza
16 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
THE ERP
TRANSFORMATION
U
p to November 2017, many of the
HR related processes were manual
and tedious. A few had some
systems developed in house, a few
of these processes and how they have been
transformed since the Launch of ERP phase 1
Staff leave
Whenever a staff wanted to go on leave,
he/she would have to discuss with his/her
immediate supervisor, make a call to HR to
establish his/her leave balance. HR would
then go to the staff file and establish leave
balances and communicate to the staff.
The respective staff would then fill in the
leave form downloaded from the bridge. After
filling, the staff would submit that form for
authorization by his/her supervisor. After
authorization, the staff would have to deliver
the form to HR to update his/her records.
This was tedious and some forms would not
actually reach HR thus it was possible for a
staff to take leave without HR taking record of
it
I. Leave those days was a pain,
we would never be sure of
how many leave days you have,
it would take days for HR to
provide leave balance…indeed we
thank God for ERP.
With ERP, leave application has
become very easy! All leave records
are maintained by the system and
at any one point in time, a staff
can be able to know their leave
entitlement, they are even able to
plan for leave in advance. It has also
become easy for the supervisors to
know the leave balances of their teams and to
easily access records of who is scheduled to
go on leave when and for how long. More so
to monitor when a staff is required to be back
from leave other than trying to memorize or
write in a note book
Staff Salary Advances
Salary advance processing was also manual at
the start. A staff had to fill in a salary advance
request form, have it signed by the supervisor
and deliver it to HR. HR would then have the
form authorized by the Manager Employee
Benefits before capturing the details for
payroll update. The form would then be sent
to finance to process the cash. This process
took time and sometimes the salary advance
form would get misplaced in the process.
Sometimes, it would be difficult to get a driver
2. We used to cheat HR, you
would fill in the form , have
it signed by Supervisor but never
take it to HR, hence you would
proceed on free leave.
to deliver the form from training school to
Nakawa (finance) and getting an advance
would be such a tedious process. Sometimes a
staff would fill a form with an amount greater
than their entitlement. This alone would make
the request invalid and require a fresh form.
With ERP, this process has been automated.
It is a few steps and a request for a salary
advance is submitted to HR. HR processes
the advance and through ERP the request is
directed to finance for payment processing.
Life has become easier. No more looking for
a driver to move the request between HR and
Finance
Management of staff personal data
Prior to ERP, whenever a member of staff got
something new to their personal data, they
had to deliver this information to HR and
have their files updated. If one attained a new
qualification, got a child, got married, wanted
to change their account number or otherwise,
they needed to make a journey to HR to
deliver this information. Documents would get
lost, someone at HR would forget to update
the file or other related challenges.
With ERP everyone has their personal log in.
It is just a click away and everyone is able to
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 17
...the drivers and office
assistants were our
bosses in this area.
Remember they used
to deliver these forms
to HR, and tracking
them was a difficult
thing...
...you felt like some
favored staff got their
requests approved or
paid .
update their personal data. Data integrity is
now guaranteed. More over data safety is a
plus. You get a new baby, just log on to ERP
and update, attach a birth certificate and
someone from HR will approve the request for
the addition at the comfort of your desk!
Access to Individual Payslips
Any time, you can access any of your pay slips
from ERP! Previously, a team from Employee
Benefits after paying salaries would embark
on sending individual payslips to respective
owners. Sometimes these slips would get
deleted before we use them. If you needed a
payslip at any other point in time, you would
have to make a call or send an email to the
Employee Benefits Team. They would forget,
you would call again. They would sometimes
be out of office; you would call again.
With ERP, your pay slip is just a click away.
Whenever you need it, you can have it! You
can even monitor your pay daily if you so wish
18 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
Procurement
Made Easy
By Kinyiri Jibril
W
ho remembers the time when
we had to fill in the manual
procurement booklets? Each
office/departments had that
book. At times that book would become
scarce like gold. Upon filling in the book,
it moved to the various approvers like AC,
Commissioners etc before it reached PDU.
One had to keenly follow their booklet from
each office lest someone else took it even
before your requisition was approved. And
once all signatures where acquired, you
would then pluck out the paper and
proceed to procurement. WHAT A MESS
IT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The procurement process was riddled
with delays for both internal and
external clients. With ERP, a number of
interventions aimed at improving service
delivery have been deployed.
The automation of the procurement
process has been implemented in phases
and the modules rolled out so far include:
- Procurement Planning, Procurement
requisitioning, Order processing and Supplier
Payment Processing.
1. Procurement Planning:
Departmental/Budget Liaison Officers
enter data from their annual work plans
for procurement requirements. The Budget
Control Unit checks online for the correct
budget lines and also ensures availability
of funds for those procurable activities/
requirements. Once each Head of department
approves his departmental plan it is
consolidated by the Procurement & Disposal
Unit for the approval and signature of the
Commissioner General.
2. Procurement Requisitioning:
Once a procurement plan is in place, it must
be executed/implemented. Users login into
ERP system and raise requisitions to kick
start the procurement process of the planned
procurements. A processes that is now
completely done online.
This has not only made life easy for people
initiating/raising requisitions but it has also
reduced cost and time of doing business.
3. Procurement Order Processing:
Through ERP procurement officers are able to
process the Procurement Orders which then
go online through different levels of approval
and finally delivered to supplier’s email.
4. Supplier payment process:-
“A procurement is not complete until a
payment is made”, a phrase every provider/
supplier is quick to remind every buyer
and rightly so. ERP has revolutionized this
Quick
benefits:
Online
Alignment
Procurement
of plans to
Planning and
budgets
requisition
Online
procurement
orders and instant
notification to the
suppliers
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 19
process. This function commences with the
supplier issuing an invoice, then the user on
the advice from stores verifies the goods.
Verification is a process that requires a user
or a technical person to physically look at the
requirements before acceptance.
Supporting documents including goods
received note (GRN) are then attached and
forwarded to relevant user department for
approval before they are finally submitted
to finance to process payment. Services
do not require this process as they are
simply certified by the user before invoice is
forwarded to finance.
PDU is yet to fully maximize the benefits of
the entire automation of the procurement
cycle which will bring on board the pending
modules such as contract management,
Evaluation and i-supplier which will cater for
the full automation of the invoicing process.
Reduced cost
and time of doing
business - raise
procurements from
anywhere and track
at the convenience
of your desk.
Quick Supplier
payment process
because all
documents and
approvals are
online.
20 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
Future IT
D
isruptive trends in business and
emerging client expectations,
are driving the need for a
reconsideration of operating
models for Tax Administrations. URA
continues to exploit to exploit the
efficiencies provided by technology to
serve our clients. Accordingly, the afore
mentioned trends are a stimulus for a
technology transformation initiative.     will include improved IT Service
This initiative has been adopted
as the Future IT project to Define a
digital Strategy with consideration of
emerging URA objectives. This strategy
will aim at optimizing IT investments,
increasing the IT user satisfaction score,
improve IT service quality, enhance IT
security, optimize use of technology,
strengthen IT risk management, enhance
IT infrastructure capacity, improve staff
motivation and improve knowledge and
skills.
The project will Harmonize IT business
processes with industry good practice
and standards and have all IT processes
aligned to business processes to
increasing the IT user satisfaction score
and improve IT service quality
Future IT will Investigate, kickstart and
institutionalize disruptive innovations for
URA business through a digital innovations
plan that will enable URA to adequately
plan for changing revenue sources
and stay ahead of the evolving digital
economy.
In order to meet the growing business
needs, the project will review the IT
organization design and propose changes
that will facilitate the corporate strategy
and implement an industry standard data
center facility that will handle the ever
changing business needs and increasing
capacity of the enterprise.
The anticipated results of the IT
Transformation project undertaking
Delivery, improved IT Client Satisfaction,
streamlined corporate IT Governance,
improved Systems Reliability and
Availability and higher Productivity.
Peter, the project manager and his
team are excited to be a part of the URA
transformation.
Research on
AI/Machine
Data Center
Learning / Big
Upgrade
Data /
Analytics
Digital
IT Service
Maturity
Catalogue
Assessment
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 21
A 12:00am call on one Wednesday morning
brought to reality that our Payment server
could be off during the peak filing period.
One of the bank’s IT support staff had
confirmed that they were not able to
process payments and for any IT personnel
this is just a nightmare as the problem
could be at anyone of the many OSI layers.
Because we were very determined to make
sure we enable the collecting departments
meet the target, the Team had to come in to
restore the service at 3am in the morning.
After a few minutes of systematic trouble
shooting it was discovered that the problem
was due to temporary capacity exhaustion
of the server’s data store that resulted into
off lining of the service. With the flexibility
of the HCI, the team managed to extend
the storage of the server data store and
modified the thresholds that triggered
the actions that caused the outage of the
service.
From the lessons learnt from this experience
we were able to change our service delivery
model to a High Availability setup for the
payment server.
Written By Allen Nassanga
22 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 23
24 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
Information
Technology
Security
T
he obscure out-look of IT
security is an issue from time
immemorial. In the year 2008
at the height of modernization
reforms, URA management deemed
it imperative to establish a security
focused function within the IT division
as a result of the various technological
risks that had started to manifest
around this time. Thus, the ICT Security
section was inaugurated. The team has
since been expanded to 5 staff from
the originally appointed two staff who
managed the section.
The now well-known motor vehicle
fiasco case in 2011 further cemented
URA management’s commitment to
invest heavily in IT Security. As a result,
in the ensuing years, there was rapid
acquisition of various state of the art
tools to address identified technology
risks. The staff in the ICT Security section
and other IT staff have also received
world class training from various
institutions including the renown SANS
institute.
The team has made remarkable
additions to our enterprise security
trail and have Implemented the secure
Mobile Access solution to facilitate
field staff (DT and Customs and others)
to remotely and easily access URA
resources anywhere, anytime. The has
truly enabled DT to go mobile.
The team has rolled out network
endpoint policy enforcement
mechanism to all upcountry stations
which has increased visibility into
who is connected to our network and
prevent unauthorized access to URA
resources. In brief, they can see you
from anywhere. This has been coupled
with IT Security Awareness in upcountry
stations and random users which has
improved user alertness to IT Security
Risks.
With the level of criticality of URA
business to our country, it doesn’t come
as a surprise that several people have
malevolent intent towards the reputation
of the organization and Uganda at
large. IT security has continuously
monitored and blocked off suspicious
attacks on externally published web
applications which if successful would
lead to unavailability of services hence
impacting revenue collection. The set of
sophisticated tools used has allowed the
team to detect and deter 300-500 attacks
per day.
In order to facilitate tax collections at
different points, several stakeholder
connect to URA systems and this is
made possible by the security team that
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 25
The statistics indicate that
the top 10 countries that
acted as sources of ICT
security attacks included
Uganda with the high-
est number of attacks of
194,769, followed by
United States of America
with 32,656 attacks while
internal sources amounted
to 15,792 attacks. Spain,
the Russian Federation
and Germany had 9907,
9837, 8008 and 5556
number of ICT security at-
tacks respectively.
configures Secure Tunnels with Banks,
MDAs, non-banking payments service
providers like PayWay, MTN Mobile Money,
Pegassus, among others to securely
facilitate revenue administration and
trade.
The vibrant security team members are
now the gate keepers of our network
ensuring the appropriate protection of
data, cyber information, services, and
the authority’s vital IT assets as well as
stopping unauthorized access to the
URA core systems that may lead to gross
revenue loss on the part of Government.
The team strives to balance the need
for adequate security and usability so
that users are not distressed by overly
restrictive controls.
Written By Max Mike Ayoti And Peter
Collins Wasenda
26 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 27

URA Security over the years IT

Service
Desk
The following are some of the achievements we as
Security office have realised over the years since 2005
Security before used to be a challenges as;

T
here is no staff that has never called
one of these numbers 2115, 2116, 2117.
Not forgetting our favorite lady Maddy
who retired some years ago.
Without excellent communication skills,
one can never work on this desk, you must be
calm, polite….something which is not easy.
From various issues like my password has
failed, I cannot log in, network is off, from
clients not knowing what they want and you’re
forced to imagine what they mean.
Though the only IT problem people have
crammed is “I cannot log in” ,the team has to
probe further to know what the issue is.
Service desk plays a pivotal role in
coordination of user requests which require
input from other technical teams in IT to
ensure end user satisfaction. This feeds into
the general IT core role of empowering the
business in their efforts geared towards
provision of excellent revenue services.
The team rides on great teamwork and high
self-motivation to provide excellent services.

Security scanner Surveillance room

28 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
URA Museum
I
t was an exciting and memorable moment,
when I received a handshake from the
President, on the 19th of January 2019
when we officially launched the URA
Museum alongside the launch of the URA
Tower.
The whole was tense as had to be perfect for
the commissioning, work was going on day
and night. As the museum team, there was a
lot of expectations from our bosses, they had
seen the wonderful proposals on paper and
couldn’t wait to see the final product.
I remember Vincent visited and the place was
not fully set up, he almost shed a tear, but
after through convincing he had hope. Indeed,
by Friday the place was fully organised and
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 29
looking beautiful. CG had a walk through and
couldn’t hide the smile beaming from her
face. She was appreciative of the URA history.
Come 19th January she walked the President
through the Museum and it was a successful
achievement for the team.
This is just the beginning of the URA Museum;
enhancements are still going on to make it
one of the top benchmark museums in East
Africa. We have since participated in various
museum events like International Museum
Day, we are also fast tracking registration of
the museum with the International Council
of Museums and Archives (Snippets into the Future museum concept
future museum as seen in the pictures)
30 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 31
32 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
Evolution
of CSD
Article by Patrick Emor
Revenue Collection
At inception URA Collected Revenue in real
physical money in cash and in the evening it
would be bundled in sacks. The following day
a decision would be made of how much to
deposit in the Bank for the Government.
In Domestic Tax Department, on payment,
a client would get service after two to
three days. This is because Till Sheets were
manually generated and would be delivered in
a locked brief case by office messenger up to
Nakawa (URA) where reconciliation was done,
a receipt written, then a return dispatched to
respective stations for the service to be given
to the clients.
Now with ETax system, BPAFs are history. You
can generate a PRN and pay from your sitting
room and the service is offered without you
going to the Bank or URA by crediting your
ledger instantly.
Payment Methods
From manual cash based systems of revenue
collections in 1991, URA has moved to revenue
collections, processes and transactions
being done by commercial banks, mobile
money, internet based banking, and also with
financial intermediaries like PayWay USSD
platform.
Collection Targets
Net Revenue growth has risen from Sh180.46
billion in 1991/92 to Shs.16.6 trillion in 2018/19.
The tax to GDP ratio growth from 6.97% in FY
1991/92 to 15.11% in FY 2018/19.This is above
Uganda National Development Plan 11 of
14.9% for the year.
Domestic Tax Department collected 9.7 trillion
posting 102.8% performance with a growth
rate of 17.68% compared to 2017/2018.
Experts
Management of URA were 60% experts paid in
foreign currency (Edward Odame Larbi Siaw,
Peter Melling, etc), but now we have excellent
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 33
local expertise internally resourced.
Since then, URA has radically changed the way
top management is appointed with a focus on
local talent.
Office Environment
We worked where there were no escape windows.
Now we have lifts and workways for any
emergency in URA Tower.
Open Door Policy
Originally Bosses sit in closed doors, but
Management of Finance introduced open door
policies we deal directly without going through
the secretary. This is evident in the New URA
Tower second floor where everyone is open.
Team building
We used to have individual sectional
engagements; Expenditures and collections.
The current Management created Division
engagements the peak of it was at Adventure
Park where the AC F was in the bus with us until
9:00pm to and fro. This graduated to the CSD led
by CCS crown by Silent disco at Lake Bunyonyi.
These was very timely since many new staff join
CSD now as a family we are the face of Change.
Structure
URA has transitioned from being a top heavy
institution with 19 reporting layers in the
structure, over 45 Management staff and about
2076 staff to a leaner flatter organization with
fewer reporting layers managing over 2100 staff.
34 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
My most memorable moment
in URA - When I was confirmed
as a permanent staff.
M
y name is David Ernest Nyombi, let’s
says my middle name is Ambulance,
I have worked for URA for the last
two years as the Ambulance fleet assistant
and I remember someone telling me that
they needed someone with my exact skills
during the interviews and it has always been
my testimony. I enjoy listening to Gospel
music, football, reading the bible, magazines,
adventuring, etc.
My most satisfying moments in my tenure in
URA is when I was confirmed as a permanent
staff. However, my role comes with a number
of challenges; No hardship allowance yet
I work around the clock, staff with minor
ailments demanding all your attention yet
they are those with critical and urgent cases,
there is no treatment room in URA for minor
cases or first aid, lack of fully stocked First aid
kits, using the same ambulance for patients
and dead bodies. We make sure to always
disinfect and clean the ambulance thoroughly,
especially after such incidents.
Despite all that, I’m always happy when I
help a staff in need, the fact that I have a job
is something I never take that for granted.
One day I vividly remember is when I was
informed that a staff and her husband had
been involved in an accident, I and an HR staff
arrived at Mulago Casualty Wing at around
9am and the lady was just lying there in a very
critical state but not attended to. Our sole
purpose was to relocate her to IHK. However,
the doctors at Mulago refused to release
her. My colleague pleaded with doctors but
they still refused. She later came and told
me what was happening, I had dealt with
them before, I engaged them further and
they released her into our care. After a
while, we were told to go and identify the
husband’s body. My colleague could not
make it so I had to go and verify that he
was dead which on a sad note was true.
She was given the first treatment and later
at around 3pm we rushed her to IHK where
she is receiving treatment till now. Though
it was a sad moment for her and the family,
she was grateful we saved her life.
Another day, I had to go help a staff that
lost 5 family members in a car accident. It
was the most heartbreaking day that I have
ever witnessed since I started driving the
ambulance in URA.
It’s my humble request that the
Organisation purchases another ambulance
to make work easier for maximum
efficiency and staff should always enjoy
ambulance services in the correct way
whenever the need arises.
Lastly, I would like to take this
opportunity to thank the URA Management
and CSD Management for being able to
provide us with the benefits package
especially the health services.
David Ernest Nyombi - Ambulance
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 35
"I was puzzled as to
how I would manage
frequenting the hospital"
I
n January this year, I was involved in an
accident that left with two broken legs.
I vividly remember I was hospitalised in
IHK for 3 weeks and then I was discharged.
The doctor advised that I had to undergo
physiotherapy for me to be able to walk again.
Sometimes once a week or once in two weeks
as advised by the doctor. I really want to thank
URA, CSD management and the driver of the
ambulance because I was puzzled as to how
I will manage frequenting the hospital. Fleet
office in consultation with CSD management
provided me with the ambulance which still
picks me from home and takes me to hospital
every time I have a doctor’s appointment.
With the ambulance, I’m able to meet with my
doctor at the agreed time and also get back
home with no hustle at all. I am now able to
walk and I greatly attribute this to the prompt
response and unconditional care that URA,
CSD and not forgetting David (ambulance
fleet) offers to ensure that all staff are in good
health.
May the almighty bless you for never giving
up on me and always responding every time I
call.
Lydia - Testimony in regards to Ambulance
36 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
LIFE
ON THE
WATERS
F
rom driving the ambulance to driving
a boat, this was a total change for me.
I was excited at the same time I was
anxious. Considering the many stories I
heard about life on the waters…my mind was
blown with a million questions running in my
mind: How would I cope? Who would take care
of my family? Nonetheless on that fateful day,
I packed my migugu said my goodbyes and
headed to Hama Islands. After receiving a
warm welcome from the team, I then settled in
well.
As the case is in most stations, you expect
to be given some orientation and then some
free time to get used to the place. But that
was not the case. Work started, but this was
not the case, work started immediately. I was
shown the boat, and given the keys.
We do a lot of surveillance activities, 24
hours 7 days a week and thus you find one
can spend over 3 days sailing on water. This
has forced us to learn how to cook, we move
with saucepans, food, especially if you’re
on surveillance for 3 days. On one of those
days as were doing our usual monitoring
and surveillance activities, we were several
kilometers from the Island. We had got
intelligence information and as we moved
towards the culprit, I realised the boat starting
sinking on one side, the earlier small crack
had magnified. Water was entering at a terrific
speed. I had to empty the fuel jerry cans,
poured out our extra fuel into the lake, cut
the jerry can and asked my colleagues to start
THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 37
bailing water out of the boat. I didn’t alert them of
the crack, instead told them that there was an issue
with the water pump. So we pumped and pumped
though after a while they realised the full extent of
the problem. We kept calm and as we moved we met
some fishing boats who rescued us, and we fixed the
boat and headed back to the Island.
There are few recreational activities on the island.
We play a little football but not often because of
the unfriendly environment. The locals are hostile
because they look at us as people who are there to
spoil their business. We try to some sensitization
whenever we can.
Our greatest challenge is working in the night.
We lack gadgets, GPS, night googles , to enable us
see in the night, often times we have ended up in
the wrong area due to lack of compasses. Marine
training is also needed. We support tax collection
by preventing smugglers from using the lake, hence
enabling the stations at Mutukula, Malaba to collect
heavily. Smugglers used to smuggle freely from
Kenya, Tanzania. We have now stopped them.
Mwanjuzi Fred
38 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1 39

Pictorial CSD team building

40 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1

Pictorial Team CSD

42 THE BROADCAST - VOL 1
AN ACCOUNTING
CROSS WORD PUZZLE
Across
5 What is left over after you subtract
business liabilities from business assets. (6)
6 What happens when the URA examines
your tax return. (5)
8 An amount of money that can be offset
against a tax liability. (9)
9 A liability to a creditor, carried on open
account, usually for purchases of goods and
services. (15)
10 A company’s net income, which is the
bottom line of the income statement. (10)
12 Actual changes in cash as opposed to
accounting revenues and expenses. (8)
Down
1 The number of net dollars earned per each
dollar of invested monies. (3)
2 A reduction in the value of an asset with
the passage of time, due in particular to
wear and tear. (12)
3 Lowers your taxable income, which
therefore lowers your tax liability. (9)
4 A financial gain, especially the difference
between the amount earned and the
amount spent in buying, operating, or
producing something. (6)
7 Payment you receive when the
government owes you money. (9)
11 Revenue service of the United States
federal government. (3)