COSASE Summons Shareholders of Defunct Banks Under Probe

By Max Patrick Ocaido

Parliament has summoned all shareholders of the 7 defunct Banks that were controversially closed by the Central Bank.

The Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) will this week starting today, Monday interact with the various shareholders having concluded grilling Bank of Uganda (BoU) officials over the closure of the 7 banks.

Since November last year, COSASE headed by Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri County) has been probing BoU following the Special Audit Report on the closure of these commercial banks in Uganda. The committee has since then been interacting with different stakeholders and the probe now climaxes with shareholders who have been requested to bring all the relevant information related to the closure of the respective banks. The defunct commercial banks include; Teefe Bank (1993), International Credit Bank Ltd (1998), Greenland Bank (1999), The Co-operative Bank (1999), National Bank of Commerce (2012), Global Trust Bank (2014) and Crane Bank Ltd (CBL).

According to the program, COSASE will start Monday (today) meet shareholders of National Bank of Commerce, Teefe Bank, Nile River and SIL Investments Limited. Nile River is the company that bought the assets and liabilities of International Credit Bank Ltd, the Co-operative Bank and Greenland Bank. The loan portfolio of the 3 banks was over 130bn but BoU sold them at Shs8bn which is 93% discount. Nile River later handed over the 3 banks to SIL Investments Limited.

On Tuesday, the committee is expected to interact with shareholders of International Credit Bank Ltd, the Co-operative Bank and Greenland Bank and on Wednesday, COSASE will wind up with shareholders of Crane Bank and Dfcu. In 2016, BoU sold Crane Bank sold to Dfcu at Shs200bn. Among the shareholders expected to appear include; former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi (NBC), Sudhir Ruparelia (Crane Bank), Amos Nzeyi (NBC) and Justice George Kanyeihamba (NBC).

While interacting with COSASE in December last year, BoU officials led by Governor, Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile failed to avail accountability of the Shs478bn that the Central Bank reportedly injected in defunct Crane Bank while it was under receivership. The liquidation cash was reportedly spent between 20th October 2016 and 27th January 2017 when the Central Bank sold Crane Bank to dfcu Bank.