Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has offered an apology to clients after a video emerged showing staff celebrating colleague’s birthday as clients waited in queues to be served.

The video posted on Facebook by a one Michael Ssuuna went viral showing people standing in the queue bewildered by what was going on.

“We deeply apologise to our clients for this unfortunate experience. We are investigating this matter,” the tax body said in a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday afternoon.

“URA is a client-focused and responsive organization and this is not the URA way. We assure our clients, great customer experience always. It is because of you that we exist.”

The video portrays inefficiency for an organisation that seeks to grow tax revenues to fund a budget that runs in deficits every year.

In the video, which runs for 45 seconds, shows staff abandon people on the tills and ran to a corner where the singing and merrymaking for a staff member’s birthday was taking place.

When she took office in 2015, URA Commissioner General Doris Akol promised to use a mixture of carrot and stick to get people to pay taxes.