The Bank of Uganda has conceded that some its staff tasked with the destruction of Uganda currency old notes have been going against the guidelines and instead they have been stealing to notes to enrich themselves.
Central Bank’s communications director, Ms Charity Mugumya is quoted by the Daily of Uganda staffs who stole old banks notes at the currency center in Mbale and that some staff have already been asked to go on forced leave.
“There were allegations of pilferage involving cancelled stock at Mbale Regional Branch. The Bank is conducting internal investigations to ascertain the veracity of the allegations. As a result, some staff were sent on leave to pave way for investigations. Details will be available as and when investigations are complete.”
BoU) is back in the spotlight following a week of scandal, in which officials at its Mbale currency centre, including cleaners were sacked for stealing cash, withdrawn from the market.
The scandal has left top managers at the central bank carrying shame in their faces, as members of the public continue asking questions as regards to the integrity of the employees at one of Uganda’s premier institutions.
The scandals at BoU have left Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile in a mess with his management skills being questioned as scandal after scandal evolves.
Finance minister Matia Kasaija months ago said that changes at BoU were in the pipeline, based on the COSASE report that pinned the central banbk over the controversial closure of seven commercial banks such as Crane Bank Limited, Global Trust Bank Uganda, National Bank of Commerce and others.
In the latest scandal, the central bank has issued new rules on accessing machine rooms at its currency centre following reports of theft of old notes at its Mbale currency centre.
Dr Bazinzi Natamba, the BoU acting Currency Director, has barred staff not belonging to the machine room not to access it.
“In order to mitigate risks and strengthen internal controls in our currency operations, please observe the following; No Note Examiner should access a Counting/Machine Room of another Currency Branch without the required authorization and No staff other than Note Examiners should participate in the Counting/ Machine Room activities such as sorting, punching and strapping of stocks,” the directive issued on Monday, September 2, reads in part.
Dr Natamba added that there will be closer use of CCTV cameras to monitor operations of the currency strong room after it emerged that some bank staff were earlier caught on CCTV camera stealing old notes that were meant to be destroyed.
Apparently, the Central Bank issued notice in a bid to save face following rising cases of operational loopholes including the sacking of all staff at the Mbale currency centre after an investigation established that some of them were involved in theft of hard cash.
Sources said more security was last Thursday deployed at the currency centre in an attempt to reinforce monitoring and supervision.
Sources said all staff at the centre from cleaners to senior managers were fired after some of them were caught on CCTV camera picking old currency that is destined to be destroyed.
Whereas the allegations of theft surfaced some months ago, sources said BoU management decided to conduct a thorough investigation to establish the extent of the matter.
The investigation revealed that huge sums had been stolen from the strong room, hence the latest action.
The revelation comes months after investigations into the extra cargo that was loaded on a Bank of Uganda (BoU) chattered plane was extended to currency centres in Mbale, Kabale and Fort Portal. The head of BoU Currency Centres in Kabale and Mbale were also questioned for failure to detect the extra consignment on a chartered plane with sensitive government cargo.
The Central Bank has over the last year been in the news for the wrong reasons. Recently, the committee, which was formed by President Museveni in February following concerns about Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile’s sweeping staff changes, recommended sweeping changes in the management of the central bank.
In their report, the Committee reported to Mr Museveni that the central bank was polarised by cliques. The report said all the staff interviewed indicated in a way that they belong to at least a clique aligned to either Mr Mutebile or Mr Louis Kasekende, the BoU deputy governor.
To ease the tensions at BoU, the tripartite committee also recommended the separation of the position of the governor from that of the board chairman and also highlighted the need for the president to create a second position of deputy governor.
Meanwhile a private members bill is in the offing to cut the powers of the governor and his deputy who act as chairman and vice chairman of the board of BoU.
