Mbire seen shopping as MTN appoints Ugandan CEO after deportation of Wim Vanhelleputte

Troubled MTN Uganda has appointed a Ugandan as the Acting CEO after Thursday’s deportation of South African Wim Vanhelleputte, the company said in a statement.

Meanwhile as rumours persisted that MTN Chairman, Charles Mbire had been summoned, he was seening shopping at Acacia Mall this afternoon contrary to the allegations that he was due to make a statement at CID.
“To ensure business continuity, we have appointed Mr. Gordian Kyomukama, currently Chief Technology Officer, as Acting Chief Executive. Our focus continues to be on delivering the best quality products and services to our customers,” the statement said.

The statement said the company doesn’t know reasons for the deportation of the former CEO.

“MTN has not been notified of the grounds for the deportation and is working hard to establish precise reasons for the deportation,” the company said in a statement.

The statement said the company is concerned about the developments and that its officials are engaging with the authorities to seek understanding that would lead to resolving the matter.

It added MTN Uganda was fully committed to respecting and operating within the laws of the country.

In a letter signed by Internal Affairs Minister Gen Jeje Odongo, the MTN Uganda boss is to stay outside Uganda indefinitely.

Vanhelleputte’s deportation comes days after the arrest and deportation of three other senior employees of the telecommunications giant. These were; the chief marketing officer, Mr Olivier Prentout, the mobile money general manager Ms Elsa Mussolini and Annie Tabura who was the general manager for sales and distribution at MTN Uganda.

Ms Mussolini said she was ejected from the country for allegedly inciting violence by funding Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, the Kyadondo East MP and People Power architect.

There has been an continuing investigation against more MTN staff for allegedly compromising National Security using their positions at the company.

The staff members being investigated as part of a classified investigation have since recorded statements with the Special Investigations. The investigations began in July 2018 after the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) raided their call centre in Mutundwe, a Kampala suburb and confiscated the company servers.
According to a source in Security circles, the government at the time had received intelligence information relating to Espionage, tax evasion and money laundering.

Sources say for the last six months, the collected data was being analyzed until a month ago when investigations started officially with the constitution of a team of personnel from Uganda Police Force Criminal Investigations, the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), the External Security Organisation (ESO) and the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).
The team is under the supervision of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) Sabiiti Muzeeyi.

Former Head Of Legal and Lawyer Anthony Katamba has been recording statement after statement at police, all indication is that he will be charged.

Apart from the espionage case, information available is that MTN Uganda is accused of under declaration of Mobile money transactions. It is said the company has cheated Uganda close to Shs540 billions shillings worth of tax on mobile money transactions, airtime sales and other under declared taxable services.