The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has summoned the Finance Minister, Matia Kasaijja to explain why government has not appointed the deputy governor of Bank of Uganda replacing Louise Kasekende.
According to Kadaga it’s only Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile taking on all the responsibilities of the governor yet he is supposed to have a deputy
“I am concerned about this crisis, therefore, I hereby order the Minister of Finance Matia Kasaijja to appear before Parliament to tell us when the deputy governor is going to be appointed,” Kadaga said.
This comes after Igara County East Member of Parliament Michael Maranga Mawanda raised an issue of national importance in parliament tasking government to appoint a deputy governor for central bank.
“Madam Speaker, I am here to raise on an issue of national importance, I am currently working on the Bank of Uganda amendment bill 2019.But madam Speaker as I speak now, we don’t have a deputy governor for the Bank of Uganda, and the position is vacant. Can government explain to me why they are not appointing a new person?,” Mawanda said.
Former Bank of Uganda deputy governor Louis Kasekende contract expired on January 13 and he subsequently handed over his office to the governor after President Yoweri Museveni had declined to renew his contract.
Kasekende is one of the bank officials who witnessed dubious selling of seven defunct banks. Teefe in (1993), international credit Bank ltd in 1998, Greenland bank (1999), The Co-operative Bank (1999), National bank of commerce 2012, Global Trust Bank (2014) and the dubious sale of Crane Bank Ltd to Dfcu bank in 2016.
In 2018, Parliamentary Committee on Commission, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) led by the then chairperson, Abdul Katuntu embarked on an investigation into the closure of banks after Auditor General’s (AG) report which showed irregularities into the sale and closure of banks.
COSASE established that, some banks including Crane Bank Limited were liquidated on telephone calls without thorough evaluation. Crane Bank Limited was in 2016 put under receivership and later sold to Dfcu bank at a mere Shs200 billion whose value was to be recovered from the bad book. Crane bank had initial capital of Shs478 billion.
When BoU sold CBL to Dfcu bank it also transferred to the same bank freehold properties of CBL/Meera Investments Limited without following the law. CBL was renting the properties from Meera that were wrongfully transferred to Dfcu bank.
It also established that Kasekende and Mutebile failed their mandate of adequately supervising the management in the process of liquidating the financial institutions.
