Mobile network operator MTN has filed a protest with Uganda’s legal authority the Judicial Service Commission after a number of its senior managers were summoned to face tax fraud charges.
MTN’s top brass are facing trial over tax evasion amounting to $27 million, one of the largest ever alleged scams in Uganda’s history.
The company is angry over failure by the judge to issue them with a summons only for the managers to hear about it in the media.
The company complains that despite the order to issue the summons having been made on November 19, they were dated November 7, at a time the case had been transferred to the director of public prosecution.
“There was no charge sheet on the record nor was there a record of proceedings before (the magistrate) between November 6, when she pronounced her ruling in an open court with counsel for all parties present, and November 19, when the order was supposedly issued,” the company said in a statement Thursday.
The magistrate in question summoned MTN Group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa and 12 officials including the chairman and CEO of MTN Uganda to appear to court on December 12 to face charges of tax evasion, conspiracy to make false customs declarations and conspiracy to evade taxes.
