With snag on the direction of the investigations pursuing former and current Bank of Uganda bosses who mismanaged affairs of the Central Bank, now, there are renewed calls for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Jane Frances Abodo to put her feet down.
A Ugandan private citizen has now written to the DPP requesting to prosecute former Bank of Uganda Deputy Governor Louis Kasekende, former Director of Commercial Banks Supervision Justine Bagyenda and the Director for Financial Markets Development Coordination (FMDC) Benedict Sekabira over their roles in the closure of banks and loss of their assets.
Kakuru Sam Brian, a private citizen, sent the petition to the DPP on Monday, detailing offences of abuse of office and causing financial loss,contrary to the Anti-Corruption Act that have been orchestrated by the officials.
In his petition, Kakuru states that the three officials masterminded the mismanagement of properties that were in the names of seven commercial banks that were closed by the central bank between 1992-2016.
“Section 11 of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2009 creates the offence of abuse of office where a person employed by a public body or company in which a government has shares does or directs to be done an act arbitrary tor prejudicial to his employer or any other person in abuse of office,” reads the petition.
“Section 20 of the Anti-Corruption Act provides for the offence of causing financial loss which is committed by any person employed in a public body or company which government has shares or bank and or a public body who in performance of his duties does or omits to do any act knowing or having any reason to believe that his act/omission will cause financial loss to the government or financial institution.”
Background
A special audit report by the Auditor General (AG) revealed weaknesses in the management of the Central Bank and placed blame on the door of the Governor Emmanuel Mutebile and his team for errors in the closure of at least seven commercial banks.
Among banks was 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) (2016).
The audit was sparked off by the interest generated by the closure and sale of Crane Bank owned by businessman Sudhir Ruparelia.
AG John Muwanga would discover BoU did not have guidelines/regulations or policies in place to guide the identification of the purchases of the defunct banks. Neither did the bank have guidelines to determine the procedures to be adopted in the sale/ transfer of assets and liabilities of the defunct banks to the identified purchaser.
The AG found out that in the Purchase of Assets and Assumption of Liabilities (P&A) deal BoU officials signed with Dfcu on January 25, 2017 for the purchase of Crane Bank Limited, the most recent bank to be disposed off, there was not even negotiation minutes leading to the P&A agreement. On top of that BoU did not carry out a valuation of the assets and liabilities of CBL before their sale.
The Crane Bank sale opened a pandora box and a closet of skeletons hiding behind the Grand Bank of Uganda, have come out dancing on streets. The Bank of Uganda image has in the process suffered by its officials have failed to acknowledge and right the wrongs in the Central Bank systems.
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