The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has unearthed a wide-reaching syndicate involving illegal carriage and clearance of restricted exports—specifically unprocessed timber—violating Executive Order PO/03 issued by President Yoweri Museveni on June 21, 2023, to curb deforestation and environmental degradation.
A string of investigations launched by URA’s Tax Investigations Department (TID) has revealed that unscrupulous exporters, clearing agents, and rogue URA officers colluded to smuggle timber out of Uganda under the guise of it being transit cargo from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to South Sudan.
The fraudulent scheme was first detected in November 2024, when several trucks loaded with unprocessed wood were intercepted en route to South Sudan. According to forged documentation presented at the border, the timber had originated in DRC. However, further scrutiny revealed these documents were fake and part of a larger operation to bypass Uganda’s strict timber export restrictions.
Key findings from the investigation show that perpetrators, including truck owners, clearing agents, and even URA staff, manipulated the customs system using several tactics. Chief among them was forging customs documents to misrepresent timber as originating from DRC, while in reality it was sourced from within Uganda, thereby breaching the presidential directive.
Some URA officers at the Vurra and Elegu border points, which were found to be the most compromised, allegedly cleared the timber without physically inspecting the trucks. These officers claimed the timber was coming through ungazetted border points, despite clear customs regulations barring clearance of such cargo from unofficial entry routes.
Further, the TID discovered serious misuse of Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs), with clearing agents and declarants sharing login credentials and passwords with unlicensed individuals. This created a murky trail of accountability and hampered efforts to pin down the actual culprits.
In a desperate attempt to sanitize the process, some URA customs staff even introduced unofficial barrier registers to record forged T1 transit documents, bypassing standard police verification procedures. Police officers confirmed that the implicated trucks were never physically recorded in their regular barrier registers, further raising red flags.
Speaking out on the scandal, URA’s Commissioner for the Tax Investigations Department, Mr. Denis Kugonza Kateeba, condemned the syndicate, warning that severe penalties await all those found culpable. “Licenses of any clearing firm involved in these fraud schemes will be revoked,” he stated. “Clearing agents and the wider business community must partner with URA in rooting out this destructive behavior.”
Kugonza also emphasized that URA officers found complicit will be held personally accountable, adding that investigations have been launched and disciplinary measures are imminent. He urged all customs staff to uphold integrity and prioritize national interest in executing their duties.
To combat the vice, URA has pledged to intensify public sensitization efforts targeting truck owners, clearing agents, and timber dealers. The campaign will focus on educating stakeholders about legal obligations, ethical customs clearance, and the long-term consequences of smuggling—both for individuals and Uganda’s fragile forest ecosystem.
The exposé serves as a stark reminder that environmental protection and revenue enforcement are intertwined, and any loopholes exploited for short-term gain pose a long-term threat to the nation’s resources and development goals. URA’s swift and decisive action, backed by inter-agency cooperation, marks a significant step in the ongoing war against smuggling and institutional corruption.
