Lukwago Cautions COSASE Over Bank of Uganda Probe

By Max Patrick Ocaido

Kampala Lord Major Erias Lukwago has cautioned the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) over the Bank of Uganda (BoU) probe.

In an interview with media, Lukwago tasked COSASE headed by Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu to get into the BoU without fear or favour.

On Tuesday, COSASE members met where they drew a plan on how to conduct the probe following the Auditor General report on BoU on the sale of about 7 banks including Crane Bank.

In the interview, Lukwago challenges Katuntu and the entire committee to dig and come into the logical conclusion on the BoU probe. This comes at a time when IGG Irene Mulyagonja is probing the wealth of several Bank officials including BoU governor Emmanuel Mutebile and his deputy Louis Kasekende’s wealth probe which follows another investigation against the BoU former director supervision Justine Bagyenda.

“My challenge to Hon Katuntu is to give assurances to public that this probe is not going to be an exercise in futility because Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile seems to be coming out as someone who is untouchable. The other time when the IGG tried to probe them (BoU) they said go and hang you have no powers, so I don’t know what they are going to do now,” Lukwago said.

Lukwago added that the red flag on BoU came when Justine Bagyenda was sacked and lots of stories came out saying that lots of money were stashed in her account, yet she could not account for it.

“I am surprised no action was taken against her [Bagyenda], not even a forensic audit. The IGG comes in but she is blocked and I am sure there is something fishy and Hon Katuntu and team should help us and come into the bottom of this matter,” he said.

In his address Katuntu said that the Committee on Tuesday held its first preparatory meeting to map out a work plan on how the Committee is going to handle the Auditor General report in relation to the defunct banks and how they were managed by BoU.

“We have set up a work plan, we are beginning on Wednesday next week and we shall be able to interact with officers of Bank of Uganda and Board of Bank of Uganda to explain to us the issues that have been raised by the Auditor General. We are inviting both Board and Management but they are headed by the Governor. After, we have instructed clerk to look for the Boards of the defunct banks. The Boards are now defunct, so we are going to look for those who were last in those offices in those banks,” Katuntu said.

The probe follows a 28th November 2017 letter from COSASE requesting the Auditor General to undertake a special audit on the closure of all commercial banks by the Central Bank.

The confidential report from the Auditor General, John Muwanga was made public in August 2018 highlighting queries into how the Central Bank handled the closure of the seven Banks, a probe that was sparked off by the controversial closure of Crane Bank Limited which was taken over by Bank of Uganda on 20th October 2016, citing under capitalization and was later taken over by DFCU Bank.