Sarah Mwesigye Kasheka, the Assistant Commissioner Compliance and Business Analysis at Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is yet again in the spotlight for having collaborated with Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) to sneak expired pilsner beer back to the market.
According to available documents seen by this website, Kasheka, who in 2010 worked as Assistant Commissioner Field Services issued a certificate to dispose off expired 25682 carton of canned pilsner beer which had been distributed across the country for sale by UBL.
UBL had contracted a clearing firm SDV Transami to clear and transport the beer which would later be detected as expired.
The expired beer was spotted on sale in downtown Kampala- Kikuubo and therefore the business support association in Kampala under KACITA raised the concern to URA.
It is against this backdrop that Ms Kasheka intervened as Assistant Commissioner Field Services to trace all the expired products and liaise with UBL and National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) to facilitate the process of disposing off the beer without affecting the environment and subsequently harming the health of Ugandans.
Before, destroying the beer, it required a professional company which would manage the process and also a certification of destruction from NEMA to fully approve the destruction.
The certificate of destruction is issued by only NEMA in Uganda.
A source at URA revealed that UBL which couldn’t come to terms with making losses worth billions of shillings, therefore tried to engage officials of NEMA and KACITA to back off the process and let Ugandans consume the beer which was considered poisonous but they rejected.
But shockingly, Sarah Kasheka while serving as Assistant Commissioner Field Services went ahead to issue a Certificate of Destruction to Guilds Limited, which would dispose off the beer.
The certificate further carried names of UNBS, URA and UBL officers who acted as witnesses and signed by Kasheka while authorising destruction.
Queries
NEMA executive director wrote to KACITA protesting Kasheka’s powers and notified the stakeholders that Uganda Breweries had never consulted the authority regarding the destruction of the said tinned beer.
“Therefore the method of destruction was never discussed and whatever the method used was not approved by this authority. Further the destruction process was not witnessed by any NEMA official,” Dr Gerald Musoke wrote while representing NEMA ED.
Earlier KACITA had tasked NEMA to confirm the alleged destruction, if NEMA had licensed Guilds Limited as a waste handler and whether the methods of destruction for the above category waste are in accordance of waste management with NEMA regulations.
Connivance
This website, has since learnt that Sarah Kasheka conspiring with UBL and a few unscrupulous officials in the customs indicated that the 25682 cartoons of pilsner canned beer were destroyed for 4 days from March 18 to 22 and had been taken by 14 vehicles to the destruction point in Kiteezi, Wakiso District.
The vehicles numbers plates were also recorded by customs officer Robert Mugisha at that time.
What remains startling is that further scrutiny into the vehicles’ particulars in URA shows that some of these cars are saloon cars and Taxis, a clear indication that the beer was never destroyed but rather taken back to the market.
Contacting UBL head of marketing Juliana Kaggwa about this matter, she said she had no idea before referring us to the Corporate Relations Director Charity Kiyemba who wasn’t available by the time of filing this report.
Sarah Kasheka was equally unavailable for a comment.
But a few weeks ago, she told an online media outlet when her name appeared in resale of expired sugar because some people at URA are fighting her after expressing interest in Dickson Kateshumbwa’s job.
