KAMPALA: Opposition political party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), is up in arms and wants the Governor of Bank of Uganda (BoU), Prof Emanuel Tumusiime- Mutebile to resign immediately, following a series of scandals which have rocked that institution such as the alleged printing of excesses Shs90 billion as well as the controversial closure of seven commercial banks.
Days ago, five directors at BoU were arrested by State House Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) after Tumusiime-Mutebile sought the help the unit upon realising an anomaly in the consignment of the currency that was in April delivered through Entebbe International Airport on arrival from German printing company.
Speaking at party headquarters in Najjanankumbi, FDC spokesperson who doubles as the MP for Kira Municipality, Semujju Nganda, said Mutebile should have retired long time ago for failure to manage the central bank.
“Mutebile should have been retired in public interest long ago. We only lament about BoU, so wait another scandal, scandals will go after another and others will go unreported.” Semujju, said Mutebile has become a scandal himself. “He is a walking scandal. Have you ever seen him walking, he is aver sleeping only to wake up when scandals have happened. Since president Museveni is the appointing authority, he should lay him off for failure to put BoU in order,” he said.
Currently Uganda police is investigating BoU over currency consignment saga in which a chartered plane delivered five crates alongside 20 pallets of BoU consignment.
Last Friday, two BoU officials were charged at Anti-Corruption court sitting at Kololo Kampala, on allegations of inclusion of unauthorised cargo on BoU chartered plane. Francis Kakeeto, a branch manager at Mbale and Fred Wanyama were charged with abuse of office and in alternative corruption which they have both denied before magistrate Herbert Asiimwe.
Prosecution alleged that on April 26, 2019 between France, Belgium and Entebbe airport, the duo while on assignment by their employer to carry out a pre-shipment inspection of printed materials in France, in abuse of the authority to offices did an arbitrary act prejudicial to the interest of their employer and allowed the inclusion of unauthorised case on a cargo plane fully chartered by BoU.
And in the alternative, it’s alleged that they failed to refute and report the inclusion of unauthorised cargo on a plane fully chartered by BoU.
Investigators are also trying to establish how such big sums of money could be printed without the knowledge of the top leaders of the bank including both the Governor and his deputy. However, Eagle Online has learnt that by the time of the incident, Governor Mutebile had sought for leave as he was seeking medical treatment abroad. It is said his deputy Dr. Louis Kasekende was in-charge. Governor Mutebile is said to be undergoing treatment at his Kololo home as for the last one month, he hasn’t stepped in office.
COSASE PROBE over BoU over closure banks:
Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, State Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) probe of BoU between late October 2019 and late February 2019 over the closure of seven commercial banks, put the central Bank top officials in the spotlight to the extent that Tumusiime-Mutebile acknowledged that some steps in the closure of some backs were done behind his back, though he would later present documents signed by him on the same.
COSASE probe also established that BoU closed banks without following established guidelines and regulations as they closed banks like Crane Bank Limited, Global Trust Bank, Greenland Bank, International Credit Bank, Cooperative Bank, Teefe Trust Bank and National Bank of Commerce.
The spotlight of it was the sale of assets of Greenland Bank, International Credit Bank and Cooperative Bank at a discount of 93 percent to mysterious Nile River Acquisition Company, even though some of the assets were secured.
Another scandal is when Mutebile allowed BoU to sell CBL to its rival at Shs200 billion yet the central bank alleged it had injected Shs478 billion as liquidity support to CBL during the receivership. Matters were made worse when some BoU officials said CBL only needed Shs150 billion to operate before it was closed for undercapitalisation and allegedly to save depositors’ money.
