By Mubiru Ivan
With each passing day, revelations about Justine Bagyenda’s dirty dealings continue to shock the public.
The former director of supervision at Bank of Uganda is currently being grilled by the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) over controversial closure of seven commercial banks.
On Thursday, it was revealed that Bagyenda took a sole decision to sell Global Trust Bank (GTB) to Dfcu.
The committee chaired by Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu queried how Bagyenda sold GTB in 2014 without consulting the BoU, Governor, Emmanuel Mutebile.
Michael Tusiime, Mbarara Municipality MP presented to the committee a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that was signed between Bagyenda and dfcu bank on July 10, 2014.
The NDA was to give confidential information to dfcu. This is contrary to section 40 of the BoU act that says ‘no confidential information of a financial institution can be shared without its consent.’
In addition, Bagyenda signed the agreement as the head of supervision. This was contrary to the BoU Act that says only the governor; deputy governor in the presence of the company secretary can sign an agreement on behalf of the Central Bank.
The agreement was not witnessed by the company secretary. The Section 3 of BoU Act says all agreements of BOU must be witnessed by the company secretary.Bagyenda did not get the governor, deputy governor or board approval.
She claimed there was approval. The BoU company secretary read minutes of the meeting and stated there was no approval.
“Is it true that you’re the only officer who signed this document selling GTB?” Katuntu asked Bagyenda who responded in the affirmative.
She added that whereas she did not consult the governor to that effect, the legal counsel, BoU were in the know and she assumed they had briefed the governor.
“My signing on this document was based on the practice that all legal documents go through Governor’s office and the Board. I have never taken a single decision to close a bank that is never drawn by legal counsel. I assumed that they did all the necessary consultations with the governor,” said Bagyenda.
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