The youth under their umbrella Youth Power Research Uganda have appreciated the Auditor General for his job in pointing out irregularities in the way Crane Bank was handled by Bank of Uganda.
The findings that the bank was irregular handed over to DFCU, the youth say, exonerates their earlier stand against bank of Uganda which the young people had accused of having acted in error.
“We are happy just because our investors have a place to go when their hard earned capital is defrauded by selfish government officials!
“The Auditor General has delivered on his mandate by releasing a 94 report about the irregular shut down of CB by Bank of Uganda of which we have been repeatedly demanding,” the youth said in a press statement.
They added, “The more we have rigorous systems that settles disputes for investors, the more we attract more investments in our country hence more employment for our youths and more taxes to our government.”
The Youth Power Research Uganda (YOPRU) objective is to be a cushion to investors in circumstances where they (feel) feel that they (investors) have been ripped off.
They help to alert the President and government departments through writing where by the President swiftly chips in to rectify the situation by alerting relevant bodies to take action.
“We do this with passion because we found out that also investors need to have people to advocate for them just like we have human rights bodies that defend for human rights victims.
“When we wrote to the President about how Ms Justine Bagyenda, Director Supervision(BoU) had precipitated the selling of CB at a paltry of only Ugx 200b in 2016 compared to CB Assets which were Ugx1.8 trillion in 2015, just one year after, Ms Bagyendas contract was terminated there and then, which brought some sigh relief. As you can see this was broad day robbery against our investors,” the youth, through their leader Ben Sebuguzi, enumerate some of their successes.
He adds, “Now that AG, Mr John Muwanga has sent a report to parliament about the flaws and misuse of funds of about Ugx400b, we hope that COSASE committee will use that report as a lead to getting more culprits that sabotage our investors.
“Lastly, we implore the Inspectorate of Government, also another agency that promotes transparency to also bring out its findings instead of dilly dallying because time is money.”
He further adds, “Our investors’ hands have been tied because they lost trust from their investment partners here and abroad. We have been informed from reliable sources that this impasse alone has stopped about $10BUSD in form of Foreign Direct Investments to come to our country as a result of tainting the good image of our investors.”
To avoid mistakes in future, the youth recommend that the ministry takes Central Bank staff for more training in modern management practices in Accountability and Transparency because the Central bank out to be where sanity begin and spreads to other institutions.