By Kamugisha Kabahweza Allan
The URA Enforcement team has urged students of the East African Community Customs Certificate Course (EACCC) to have a sharp eye and rely on both intelligence and systems to smoke out smugglers who are sabotaging legitimate trade.
Paul Karatunga, the Enforcement In-charge Sector A, told the EACCC Second Cohort students at Busitema last week that smugglers also carry out intelligence on URA’s enforcement teams.
“As we gather intelligence, smugglers also carry out the same on us and have syndicates, so, I urge you to usually rely on intelligence if you are to hunt the big fish in smuggling,” he said.
He explained that though URA has informers, it does not singularly rely on them, but also on systems like ASYCUDA, past offences, and tactics employed by smugglers.
Karatunga informed students that the enforcement majorly carries out stakeholder management, drop checks, operations & border surveillance.
“Besides carrying out drop checks, operations, and surveillance, we also do stakeholder management with local leaders, opinion leaders, religious leaders, politicians, traders, and security agencies to get leverage and avoid hostility.”
At Malaba One Stop Border Post, the students were taken through security issues that hinder the facilitation of trade, the immigration process and its relationship with URA’s mandate and the issuance of digital number plates to vehicles that paid taxes at the port.
Kenneth Woniala, the Station Head Malaba informed the team that Malaba is the busiest border in Sub-Saharan Africa with traffic of 1,400 imports and about 300 exiting empty trucks and 200 export loaded trucks per day. He noted that not all imports end up in Uganda but some are destined to Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo and South Sudan.
Charles Basomba, the Manager Customs in the Eastern Region said that they work as a community at the OSBP and collaborate with the Ministry of Works and Transport, Uganda National Bureau of Standards, Security and Immigration.
“We exist as a community, and we always have to work hand in hand with our counterparts in Kenya. We usually have incidents to handle, and they change daily, so this keeps us on our toes,” remarked Basomba.
He told students that clearing a truck should not exceed 30 minutes and that customs works 24/7.
Moses Okello of the Tax Academy said that the excursion was to equip the students with hands-on training on how to mark-up fuel as it enters Uganda, the post-exit verification, the non-intrusive inspection, and the importance of the lower and upper gates.
