KAMPALA: International audit firm KPMG, a company that was contracted to audit the books of defunct Crane Bank has failed to complete the report. The firm was supposed to carry out the work from January 1, 2016 to January 25, 2017.
The firm was contracted for a total of Shs 921 million to provide a variety of IT support services related to the Tememos T24 software, apparently because: “the BoU team did not have a competent and experienced resource with requisite expertise regarding CBL’s core banking system (T24).”
The audit report would help provide answers to some of the questions including the whereabouts of Shs 270 billion which was part of the Shs 478 billion advanced to Crane Bank for liquidity support.
MPs on the Committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) last week sought answers to some of these questions.
Efforts to talk to KPMG were unsuccessful.
Crane Bank was taken over by BoU in October 2016 and placed it under receivership before selling it to DFCU in January 2017.
The circumstances of its sale were controversial.
Last year, a special audit by the Auditor General revealed irregularities in the manner the bank was sold. For instance, it pointed out that a number of procedures were side-stepped.
AG found that BoU officials approved and remitted $53.16 million (more than Shs195 billion) to Crane Bank by Telegraphic Transfers (TTs).
The money was allegedly requested by undisclosed Crane Bank customers and was later released through the bank’s Nostro Account 3582025085001 after BoU officials sent instructions to Citi Bank in New York.
“I traced the accounts in the CBL in the TT requests to CBL Nostro account statement and confirmed that the amounts in the requests tallied with the transfers from the Nostro Account. However, I was not able to confirm the final recipients of the respective transfers from the CBL Nostro account as the account didn’t indicate the beneficiary account names, account numbers and beneficiary bank,” the AG report states in part.
