Salutations Mr. President. I hope this message finds in good health.
I’m writing to you this letter on the backdrop of incendiary and disturbing reports that one of the authorities that was established to monitor, investigate, and prevent/combat money laundering is dithering on whether to investigate a high profile person on possible money laundering activities.
Your Excellency, the Authority on spot is the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) which was established by Parliament under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2013 and the person who should be investigated is Justine Bagyenda, the outgoing Executive Director for commercial bank Supervision at the Bank of Uganda.
For your quick recollection, the FIA board is chaired by Mr. Leo Kibirango (a person who you well know) and Justine Bagyenda has been its member since 2014 while its Executive Director is Sydney Asubo, the former director of legal affairs at Inspectorate of Government.
Owing in mind that you are the Minister of Finance though you delegate power and authority to a different person (Minister of Finance), it is highly and timely that you interest yourself in the conduct of the Executive Director and the Chairman of the board regarding this matter.
Mr. President, the lady in question whose leaked accounts indicate that she had accumulated over Shs18 billion in a space if only six years while she served as Executive Director for commercial bank Supervision at BoU, still walks scot-free despite petitions to FIA from a whistleblower.
For instance, her account in Diamond Trust Bank had Shs11.4 billion. She also had a fixed deposit account with US $214,149 and Shs436 million as of December 2017. Her GT bank account had Shs2.4 billion, while her Barclays bank account had Shs98 Million.
Similarly, her mobile money transactions leaked documents showed that Bagyenda’s mobile number (07727*86*9), made transactions amounting to Shs500 million in three years to a one Robert Muhumuza.
On Leo Kibirango.
Kibirango is the chairman of board that essentially, supervises the activities of theFIA, and therefore, Mr. Asubo and the team report to the board. However, reports indicate that the former governor of BoU is either conflicted or incompetent to firmly shoulder such a responsibility which has left FIA’s image to be a shadow of what it ought to be.
Despite having an avalanche of accusations cascading on her shoulders, Mr. Kibirango is yet to request Ms. Bagyenda to step down from the authority’s board so as not to interfere with investigations. And close to three months down road after receiving the petition, the public is yet to receive a single paragraph of how far FIA has gone with the investigation.
Mr. President, how competent and fitting is such a person to chair a sensitive board like one of FIA?
On Sydney Asubo, a man with undoubted experience and knowledge of the law is yet to convince the public that he is the right man for job. This is because, one struggles to identify a case that he has successfully investigated and led to prosecution since 2014.This leaves a long rift of doubt as to whether Asubo can successfully investigate one of his gaffers.
Finally Mr. President, the duo has left undone what they ought to have done and done what they ought not to have done, and as such there is no truth in them. It is high time you relieved them of their duties like you recently did to immigration officials Godfrey Sasaga, the director Immigration and Commissioner, Anthony Namara so as to save the darkening image of FIA.
I remain Kagenyi Lukka, the aspiring MP ikiiki Constituency in Budaka.
