International Monetary Fund has cautioned government to retire senior servants at Bank of Uganda in public interest.
According to knowledgeable sources, Governor Emmanuel Mutebile is among those who the IMF report says should be retired or never retained. However, it is reported that Mutebile has refused to make the report public as he is among those being mentioned.
According to sections of the leaked report which a source at BoU have seen, several directors who are currently holding offices have been recommended for sacking or retirement in public interest.
The directors listed are head legal services, Margaret Kasule, Benedict Ssekabira, the director of Financial Markets Development Coordination (FMDC), Director Statistics Charles Abuka, Director Medical Administration, Olive Kamuli, Director Financial Markets, and David Sajjabi. Others are director Administrative Services plus a host of deputy directors.
However, this has created panic at the central bank saying the report is biased as it only affects those directors who are said to have forged their age.
Eagle Online has learnt that just last week, there was a bitter exchange between the governor and one of the lawyers brought in to defend those accused for falsifying the age.
BoU last week took the accused directors to disciplinary committee known as EXCOM. EXCOM is composed of the governor, deputy governor and executive directors. Currently BoU has 10 Executive Directors without the deputy governor.
As the meeting sat down to business, one of the lawyers for director Olive Kimuli objected to the constitution of EXCOM saying poorly constituted because the governor conflicted because he is a member of EXCOM at the same time chairman of the board which makes it hard for member implicated to appeal. The same lawyer also further expressed their reservation on why Executive Director in charge of Supervision was part of the meeting when he wasn’t confirmed by the board.
Nevertheless, it is here that the governor informed the meeting that whether they win or lose, the IMF report had implicated all those directors for dismissal. However, one thing that Mutebile didn’t tell the affected parties is that the same report recommends his for retirement or dismissal as well.
Parliament last year recommended that contracts of the governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile and his deputy, Dr Louis Kasekende should not be renewed, the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has recommended.
The report, which was tabled in Parliament last year by Abdu Katuntu, the then chair, accused the top management of the central bank of mismanaging the sale of seven commercial banks, including that of Crane Bank.
Other officials that COSASE wanted to be held culpable are Benedict Ssekabira, the director of Financial Markets Development Coordination (FMDC), Justine Bagyenda, the former executive director for Commercial Banks supervision; and Margaret Kasule, the legal counsel.
The IMF’s primary purpose is to ensure the stability of the international monetary system—the system of exchange rates and international payments that enables countries (and their citizens) to transact with each other. The Fund’s mandate was updated in 2012 to include all macroeconomic and financial sector issues that bear on global stability.
BoU lately has had challenges over its governance and management systems after it emerged that the bank has no developed template it bases on to supervise commercial banks.
The IMF report which was released late last year is the latest international report asking the Ugandan leadership to revamp BoU of the current leadership.
