Bank of Uganda Deputy Governor Louis Kasekende has come under an avalanche of criticism after he attempted to block a forensic audit by the Auditor General into the central bank’s role in the mismanagement of Crane Bank.
Kasekende protested to the Attorney General in an April 19, 2018 letter, pleading that an inquiry into the controversial circumstances that led to the collapse of Crane Bank would offend the law of sub-judice because there are related cases in the High Court.
Director Legal Services Christopher Gashirabake wrote back to Kasekende on May 2 advising him to ignore demands by Parliament and the Auditor General to audit Bank of Uganda’s role in the collapse of Crane Bank.
The broad forensic audit is supposed to cover the role played by Justine Bagyenda, the former executive director for commercial banks supervision at Bank of Uganda, in the closure of Crane Bank.
Kasekende was relying on a ruling by Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah to the effect that Parliament would not debate a motion by the Budadiri East MP Nandala Mafabi demanding for the setting up of a select committee to investigate the operations of Bank of Uganda.
It has however, since emerged that the Deputy Speaker relied on wrong information as the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) was not conducting an inquiry into BoU
MPs have warned that Kasekende is pulling all the stops in a futile bid to shield a “mafia network” at Bank of Uganda and warned the Deputy Governor to back off and allow the Auditor General to proceed and carry out a forensic audit into BoU.
