Adjumani, (UG):- The Adjumani Chief Administration Officer (CAO), Mr Oryono Grandfield has issued an accountability report on the Shs1.1 bn tax fraud regarding the Development Response to Displacement Impact Project (DRDIP), in a desperate effort to clear his name over the fraud allegations.
However, upon systematic and in-depth scrutiny, the report was discovered to contain a lot of discrepancies’.
A senior district official who possesses extensive knowledge of finance observed that the action of Mr Oryono is despairing and likened it to swapping a fiber rope bumbling around his neck with a felo-de-se(suicide) chain.
What has changed
The beleaguered CAO was on April 25, 2024, reportedly summoned by the office of Permanent Secretary OPM to report to Kampala with accountability documents following a complaint lodged by the Aggrieved Contractors in the office of Prime Minister Robina Nabanja.
Under their Umbrella Adjumani district Contractors Association led by business tycoon Mr Fadul Yusuf Abdul on April 25, 2024, the aggrieved Contractors petitioned Prime Minister Robina Nabanja after CAO Oryono shunned their request in a letter dated April 6, 2024, seeking clarification.
The embattled Adjumani CAO has severally pleaded innocence to the accusation and on April 30, 30, 2024, released a 49 paged document that he claims was evidence of withholding tax clearance but after perusal and thorough analysis, the documents had a lot of trivialities and incongruities’ rendering it a hoax.
The document, a copy of which DailyExpress has exclusively seen, essentially includes; payment for 47 registration slips from URA,5 clearance slips duly signed by CAO Oryono and DRDIP desk officer (DDO) Mr Gulam Abubakar, 5 cash transfer forms signed by CPMCs (community project management committees)5 payment authorization slips and 9 cheques signed by the respective CPMCs.
Even so, out of plausible panic, CAO Oryono included a requisition form for designing a conference hall at the OPM Refugees Desk Office in Pakelle by JAMO Construction and Suppliers Co, Limited which indicated a claim of shs 4,440,000, which was addressed to DRDIP Engineering assistant Nathan Ayiko. And described it as cash meant for clearing 6% withholding tax.
What the documents have revealed.
Following an exhaustive examination of the documents, it was found that out of the 47 payment registration slips from URA two have been reproduced twice, and the total amount deciphered from all the slips is shs 185,016,373.
The amount of money from the cheques issued by CPMCs after clearance from the office of CAO and DRDIP desk officer is shs 102,847,487, which totals 287,863,861. “This payment covers the period from 2020-2024, meaning 2018 to 2019 was not included in the payments and WHT clearance”.
From the documents released by CAO Oryono three persons have deposited cheques in Stanbic Bank on various dates, however, the only depositor who is an employee of Adjumani District and assigned to handle DRDIP is MS Achen Lily-Rose who is an accounts assistant by designation while the two other depositors identified as Achen Lily and Owinja Walter are not district employees and were neither hired to deposit cash on behalf of the district.
On further analysis the deposit slips were detected bearing different stamps of Stanbic Bank that comprises; universal banker 1, For Stanbic Bank Uganda Adjumani branch, Customer service consultant, Stanbic Bank Adjumani Personal Banker, Stanbic bank Adjumani service consultant 2, Stanbic bank Uganda Adjumani service consultant 1, Stanbic bank Uganda Adjumani Branch Enquiries Department and finally Bulky Teller.
It has been discovered that 18 pieces of payment slips did not bear Company names and project details even then two were reproduced twice and the total payment for these anonymous slips totals shs 60,473,583.
Two contractors, Manson Consult Ltd and BEN Construction Company Ltd were however not included in the original list of the aggrieved party they however appear on the documents circulated by CAO this accordingly implies the earlier claims by the aggrieved contractors could sprout above the shs 1.1bn as their WHT amounts to shs 43,346,135.
Tax Credit certificates smuggled (TCC)
Out of the 16 TCCs that were issued as WHT accountability documents it was discovered that 5 TCCs belonged to companies not related to DRDIP contracts and had not signed contracts with CPMCs.
A typical example is Rock Trust Contractors which was contracted under the USMID (Uganda Support to Municipality Infrastructures Development) Project to rebuild 3.1km roads in Adjumani town council at the contract sum of shs 10,3bn, Asisi Kotura mobile Catering service was hired to supply foods and beverages and Vukotura Company was contracted to construct toilets and these companies cumulatively paid WHT amounting to shs 20.710.237.
Instead of issuing responses to specific queries, Mr. Oryono wants to dupe district leaders and the contractors into believing that indeed his office is working round the clock to remit the funds deducted from them in WHT.
Contractors raise more queries
The contractors are now expressing surprise at how they have been dealing with wolves, it was very clear at the onset that the contract agreement they signed with CPMCs did not and does not indicate payment of WHT while VAT was also exempted.
Right from the launch of the project in 2018, the contractors claimed they were denied the right to access information on the implementation guidelines even when they severally brought it to the attention of officials from DRDIP National Support Team Kampala.
“In one of the tense project review meetings, we harshly raised the matter that prompted a response from DRDIP accounting officer Mr. Godfrey Seramba in a letter on April 20, 2023, and the letter in question was incessantly withheld by CAO Adjumani until the contractors rose to demand accountability of WHT cash”.
Incidentally, the same contractors have executed DRDIP contracts in the neighboring districts of Lamwo and Obongi where the issue of the 6% WHT did not arise and the accounting officer of DRDIP Mr Seramba Godfrey on April 20.2023, also guided that CAOs should provide full accountability of WHT cash deducted but if deductions were not made the money should be paid to the contractors.
URA documents expose anomalies
However, URA has issued an electronic Tax Credit certificate (TCC) to four contractors following the reactions of the contractors and these contractors are; Agweru General Merchandise. Kate Contractors Construction Co. Ltd, Silver Courts Hotel Ltd, Equatoria Brothers Ltd.
The TCC issued by URA has according to the contractors been wrongly addressed, it shows the contractors have signed contracts with the Adjumani district local government to supply goods and services whereas the contractors signed agreements with CPMCs for the construction of roads and houses mainly Health centers, schools and teachers’ quarters.
The Aggrieved party numbering 15 is harboring a million questions to ask the office of CAO because the actual figures or amount of cash deducted by CPMCs and cleared by the CAO and DDRDIP desk officer does not tally with the reflections on the TCC.
Contractors speak out.
The Managing Director of Kate Contractors Limited Mr. Tiondi Godfrey says shs 97.020.670 was deducted from the office of DDO but only shs 65.873.001 was reflected on the TCC meaning less cash was remitted to the URA account in WHT leaving a deficit of shs 31.147.669.
Adjumani business tycoon Mr Fadul said shs 183,266,978, were deducted in WHT but the Tax certificate issued by URA shows shs 15,559,546, was deducted which leaves less payment of shs 167,707,432.
“What is so worrying however is that even the TCC delivered by URA does not reflect into the respective company ledgers denoting a possibility of bypassing the e-receipting process”.
The contractors contend that according to the accountability report issued by CAO Oryono, the cumulative amount of money posted to the URA account is shs 287.863.861 while the money they were originally claiming from the district is Shs1,180,000,000, leaving a deficit of Shs892,136,139.
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