Published on 16/09/2025
Parliament has expressed alarm over the soaring cost of vehicle repairs at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), after the Auditor General revealed that the tax body spent UGX6.4 billion on fixing 61 vehicles over three years.
On average, each car cost URA UGX77 million in repairs, with the highest single vehicle repair bill amounting to UGX106 million.
The revelations were presented by Medard Sseggona (Busiro East) on September 11, 2025, during plenary as he tabled the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) report on the Auditor General’s audit of URA’s corporate services.
“The Auditor General reviewed 61 vehicles with the highest repair expenditures between 2021/22 and 2023/24, finding an average repair cost of UGX77 million per vehicle. The highest expenditure in a single year reached UGX106 million, pointing to an ageing and uneconomical fleet,” Sseggona said.
When questioned by the committee, URA management e xplained that most of the vehicles had been in service for 8–12 years, with 12 undergoing engine overhauls. They noted that 21 were stationed upcountry and 16 deployed for enforcement operations. URA added that UGX6.7 billion had been allocated in FY2024/25 for new vehicles, with procurement of 25 cars already underway. Delivery is expected by December 2025, alongside the disposal of 38 ageing vehicles.
However, MPs voiced frustration over delays in delivery, recalling that in FY2021/22, 132 replacement vehicles procured by URA took excessively long to arrive, disrupting service delivery. Parliament adopted COSASE’s recommendation urging the Commissioner General to fast-track procurement, delivery, and disposal of old vehicles to curb maintenance costs and improve staff mobility.
The plenary also scrutinized URA over what the Auditor General described as “double contributions” to staff retirement benefits. In FY2023/24, government paid UGX47 billion towards URA staff pensions, UGX24.6 billion to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and UGX22.4 billion to URA’s in-house retirement scheme.
While auditors flagged the arrangement as duplicative, URA defended it, arguing that the internal retirement scheme is essential to attract and retain staff in the face of high attrition to better-paying agencies.
“Compared to other government bodies, URA pays relatively lower salaries and lacks additional allowances to cushion staff against the rising cost of living. The in-house Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme (SRBS) is therefore critical to retaining talent. Scrapping it could trigger mass attrition, undermining revenue mobilization and the tax-to-GDP ratio,” Sseggona quoted URA’s defense.
He further cautioned government against discontinuing the scheme, warning of contractual breaches and legal ramifications, noting that similar arrangements exist in other agencies including the Uganda Bureau of Standards (UBOS), Bank of Uganda, National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), and Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL).
Parliament has now directed the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) to streamline approval of retirement schemes across government entities to prevent budgetary distortions and set caps on contributions.
Under Section 10(1) of the NSSF Act, employers must remit 15% of employees’ wages monthly, of which 10% is the employer’s contribution. URA complies with this requirement but has maintained the parallel in-house scheme, which MPs argue should be harmonized under national retirement regulations.
