The Head of Anti-corruption Unit in State House, Lt. col. Judith Nakalema, is set to address the media on the arrest of Bank of Uganda (BoU) top officials over illegal printing of billions of shillings in Germany, sources say.

The BoU officials were apprehended days ago by security agencies and were interrogated in regard to the allegations that they illegally printed Shs90 billion when they were sent to Germany to pick the local currency printed there.

According to sources, the BoU team travelled to German aboard a chartered airplane to ferry the printed cash to Uganda. The Uganda team was led by a one Dr. Barenzi who is the deputy director in charge of Operations and represented Charles Malinga Akol, BoU’s Executive Director Operations.

Eagle Online has been informed that upon getting to German, Dr. Barenzi and another officer allegedly printed money to a tune of Shs90 billion in excesses and they used some of the said Shs90 billion to purchase personal goods which were as well loaded into the chartered plane. However, upon landing at Entebbe International Airport where they were received by another team from BoU and the security team, the two officials ferried the pirates that contained the balance of the Shs90 billion into their own vehicles and drove to BoU.

Nevertheless, what is perturbing investigators is the fact that between Entebbe and Kampala, the balance of the extra Shs90 billion printed illegally never reached the coffers of BoU.
Sources say that what could have brought incident to light was the insistence by officials from Uganda Revenue Authority based at Entebbe International Airport who also insisted on verifying the bill of lading to verify whether the extra Shs90 billion and bought items had been had been cleared by the Germans before the airplane departed for Entebbe.

Upon receiving the complaint from URA, BoU is said to have initiated its internal investigations on how the flight from German to Entebbe was flown and who was aboard, the exact amount cleared by the printing firm and other items. As the investigation continued, it was revealed that extra cash had been printed and was inserted on to the plane after the billing of lading had been cleared by the agents and the plane authority.

However, according to interrogators, the airplane authority came out first and apologised acknowledging that they had been duped by the two officials to load extra cash and items despite the clearance from the German authorities.
However, it is at this time that Director Malinga who had been on leave got involved because his name had been dragged in, accordingly, Mr. Malinga is said to have informed the Governor Emmanuel Mutebile about the incident and thereafter, the two agreed to brief the President and State House Anti-Corruption Unit.

Upon briefing the president, it is said he was furious about the incident and immediately directed that Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema and head of Criminal Investigation Department, Assistant Inspector of Police Grace Akullo investigate deeper to find out where the said balance of the Shs90 billion is and also established the motive by the culprits.

Storming Bank of Uganda
On Tuesday, June 11, Col. Nakalema and Akullo resolved that the combined team of police, Special Forces soldier investigators storm BoU and arrest the suspects and indeed on Wednesday June 12, the team stormed BoU and picked five directors.

The said directors include Barenzi, three other gentlemen and a lady; they were driven to Entebbe Airport under tight security where CCTV footage of the said day was reviewed. They team established some vital information before the said team travelled back to Kampala for further interrogation.

Eagle Online was reliably informed that upon arrest and further interrogation, it has been established that top executives at BoU have been implicated in the scam that is likely to be the worst scandal to occur at BoU.

Investigators are also trying to establish how such big sums of money could be printed without the knowledge of the top leaders of the bank including both the Governor and his deputy. However, Eagle Online has learnt that by the time of the incident, Governor Mutebile had sought for leave as he was seeking medical treatment abroad. It is said his deputy Dr. Louis Kasekende was in-charge. Governor Mutebile is said to be undergoing treatment at his Kololo home as for the last one month, he hasn’t stepped in office.

Accordingly, Dr. Kasekende and other three directors have been lined up for questioning on how such magnitude of money could be printed without their knowledge and yet they are the final people to clear any printing of money.

The five directors have since Wednesday been quizzed by the combined team of investigators from both police and military and are currently held in incommunicado.
Another area of interest for the investigator is said to be the Shs478 billion that BoU claims to have used during the receivership of Crane Bank.

A probe by parliament’s Committee on Commissions State Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) established that BoU officials over the years closed seven commercial banks without following guidelines.

They are believed to have connived to dupe some of the banks of their money. For instance some banks like cooperative bank, Greenland Bank and International Credit Bank had their assets sold at over 90 per cent discount even though some had valid documentation like land titles.
It is also believed that BoU officials took part of the Shs478 billion supposedly injected in Crane Bank Limited (CBL) while in receivership as liquidity support. Yet the Auditor General John Muwanga while auditing the expenditure of the money found that Shs320 billion of the funds could not be accounted for.

One of the top officials at BoU, Benedict Sekabira, during the COSASE probe, told MPs that CBL needed only Shs150 billion to stay operating yet Shs478 billion was allegedly spent for that purpose. It became worse when BoU sold CBL assets at only Shs200 billion to its rival DFCU Bank, which is being paid in installments. That transaction has become questionable.

Dr Kasekende is on record to have requested Muwanga to do a second audit of Shs478 billion but the latter declined to do so on the grounds that he did the first one and that only parliament could order him to do another one. In the first audit, BoU failed to present all documents related to the spending of the money, saying some were missing from their files.

There is concern also that BoU officials are acting behind the scene to have a fresh probe of BoU and especially Shs478 billion which has become a thorn in their fresh.
The printing of extra money above the requisite by officials could confirm the held view by some sections of the public that BoU is fool of corrupt officials who for a long time have swindled public resources for their personal benefit.

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Five directors at Bank of Uganda have been arrested by State House Anti-Corruption Unit in an ongoing crack on corruption in government agencies.

According to security sources, the move to arrest the five was informed by whistleblower who informed the unit about loss of huge monies getting lost at Entebbe International Airport upon arrival from German where the said cash had been printed. Uganda’s currency, the shilling is printed in German.

Sources reveal that about two months ago, a team from Bank of Uganda was dispatched to travel to German aboard a chartered airplane to ferry the printed cash to Uganda and upon reaching German, the Uganda team that was led by a one Dr. Barenzi who is the deputy director in charge of operations. Dr. Barenzi represented Charles Malinga Akol, BoU’s Executive Director Operations who was on leave to ferry the money.

Eagle Online has been informed that upon getting the German, Dr. Barenzi and another officer allegedly printed money to a tune of Shs90 billion in excesses and some of the said Shs90 billion was used for purchasing goods which were as well loaded into the chartered plane. However, upon landing at Entebbe International Airport where they were received by another team from BoU and the security team, the two officials ferried the pirates that contained the balance of the Shs90 billion into their own vehicles and drove to BoU.

Nevertheless, what is perturbing investigators is the fact that between Entebbe and Kampala, the balance of extra Shs90 billion never reached the coffers of BoU.
Sources say that what could have brought incident to light was the insistence by officials from Uganda Revenue Authority based at Entebbe International Airport who also insisted on verifying the bill of lading to verify whether the extra Shs90 billion and bought items had been had been cleared by the Germans before the airplane departed for Entebbe.

Upon receiving the complaint from URA, BoU is said to have initiated its internal investigations on how the flight from German to Entebbe was flown and who was aboard, the exact amount cleared by the printing firm and other items. As the investigation continued, it was revealed that extra cash had been printed and was inserted on to the plane after the billing of lading had been cleared by the agents and the plane authority.

However, according to interrogators, the airplane authority came out first and apologised acknowledging that they had been duped by the two officials to load extra cash and items despite the clearance from the German authorities.
However, it is at this time that Director Malinga who had been on leave got involved because his name had been dragged in, accordingly, Mr. Malinga is said to have informed the Governor Emmanuel Mutebile about the incident and thereafter, the two agreed to brief the President and State House Anti-Corruption Unit.

Upon briefing the president, it is said he was furious about the incident and immediately directed that Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema and head of Criminal Investigation Department, Assistant Inspector of Police Grace Akullo investigate deeper to find out where the said balance of the Shs90 billion is and also established the motive by the culprits.

Storming Bank of Uganda
On Tuesday, June 11, Col. Nakalema and Akullo resolved that the combined team of police, Special Forces soldier investigators storm BoU and arrest the suspects and indeed on Wednesday June 12, the team stormed BoU and picked five directors.

The said directors include Barenzi, three other gentlemen and a lady; they were driven to Entebbe Airport under tight security where CCTV footage of the said day was reviewed. They team established some vital information before the said team travelled back to Kampala for further interrogation.

Eagle Online was reliably informed that upon arrest and further interrogation, it has been established that top executives at BoU have been implicated in the scam that is likely to be the worst scandal to occur at BoU.

Investigators are also trying to establish how such big sums of money could be printed without the knowledge of the top leaders of the bank including both the Governor and his deputy. However, Eagle Online has learnt that by the time of the incident, Governor Mutebile had sought for leave as he was seeking medical treatment abroad. It is said his deputy Dr. Louis Kasekende was in-charge. Governor Mutebile is said to be undergoing treatment at his Kololo home as for the last one month, he hasn’t stepped in office.

Accordingly, Dr. Kasekende and other three directors have been lined up for questioning on how such magnitude of money could be printed without their knowledge and yet they are the final people to clear any printing of money.

The five directors have since Wednesday been quizzed by the combined team of investigators from both police and military and are currently held in incommunicado.
Another area of interest for the investigator is said to be the Shs478 billion that BoU claims to have used during the receivership of Crane Bank.

A probe by parliament’s Committee on Commissions State Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) established that BoU officials over the years closed seven commercial banks without following guidelines.

They are believed to have connived to dupe some of the banks of their money. For instance some banks like cooperative bank, Greenland Bank and International Credit Bank had their assets sold at over 90 per cent discount even though some had valid documentation like land titles.
It is also believed that BoU officials took part of the Shs478 billion supposedly injected in Crane Bank Limited (CBL) while in receivership as liquidity support. Yet the Auditor General John Muwanga while auditing the expenditure of the money found that Shs320 billion of the funds could not be accounted for.

One of the top officials at BoU, Benedict Sekabira, during the COSASE probe, told MPs that CBL needed only Shs150 billion to stay operating yet Shs478 billion was allegedly spent for that purpose. It became worse when BoU sold CBL assets at only Shs200 billion to its rival DFCU Bank, which is being paid in installments. That transaction has become questionable.

Dr Kasekende is on record to have requested Muwanga to do a second audit of Shs478 billion but the latter declined to do so on the grounds that he did the first one and that only parliament could order him to do another one. In the first audit, BoU failed to present all documents related to the spending of the money, saying some were missing from their files.

There is concern also that BoU officials are acting behind the scene to have a fresh probe of BoU and especially Shs478 billion which has become a thorn in their fresh.
The printing of extra money above the requisite by officials could confirm the held view by some sections of the public that BoU is fool of corrupt officials who for a long time have swindled public resources for their personal benefit.

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The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has curtailed the efforts of MP Mubarak Munyagwa, the Chairperson of Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, State Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE), who days ago constituted a select sub-committee led by Makindye East MP Ibrahim Kasozi, to do a fresh probe of Bank of Uganda over the closure of seven commercial banks.

Before Kadaga’s intervention that a fresh probe BoU cannot be done without following House rules, Munyagwa and Kasozi had been insisting that they intended to do it, saying they had received complaints from clients, customers and shareholders of the banks that were closed. The banks included; Teefe Trust Bank, Greenland Bank, International Credit Bank, Cooperative Bank, National Bank of Commerce, Global Trust Bank and Crane Bank Limited (CBL).

It should be recalled that COSASE under MP Abdu Katuntu probed BoU on the closed banks based on the special audit report of the central on closed banks by the Auditor General John Muwanga, which committee wrote a report that was adopted by parliament in February this year and according to Kadaga, MPs are awaiting government response as far as the recommendations in the report are concerned.

“Please be… advised that once the recommendations were adopted, it is incumbent upon government to respond by way of A Treasury Memorandum, which has not yet been done,” Kadaga wrote in a letter dated June 10th to Munyagwa as Chairperson COSASE.

Kadaga says that no other report has been authored by the Auditor General to parliament in respect to closure of commercial banks in Uganda by BoU to warrant an inquiry into the same by the committee. “Similarly, no authority of the House has been granted to freshly investigate the closure of commercial banks,” says Kadaga.

“…I am of the firm opinion that your action in trying to reopen a matter that was already been substantively considered and finalised by parliament in the very recent past, in the absence of a fresh report of the Auditor General on the subject or authority of the House, whose delegates…is not founded in the Constitution or indeed in the Rules of procedure of Parliament,” she continued.

The Speaker in the letter referred Munyagwa to Rule 219 and Rule 219 (2) of the Rules of Procedure. Rule 219 states: “It is out of order to attempt to reconsider any specific question upon which the House has come to a conclusion during the current session.” Kadaga in a letter says Munyagwa breached Rule 219.

She also faults Munyagwa on rule 219 (2) that states: “Notwithstanding sub rule (1), the House may reconsider any questions upon which a decision has been taken by the House if the motion for revision is taken by a vote of half of all members of parliament participating in that decision.” Kadaga says no motion was moved either by Munyagwa as Chairperson or by any other member to that effect.

Kadaga in letter also says that it was prudent parliament allows BoU to implement resolutions of parliament that were made.

Kadaga received two separate petitions from concerned citizens on May 29 and 31st respectively objecting to reopening investigations by COSASE into closed commercial banks by BoU. The petitioners argued that the second exercise would be a water of taxpayers’ money since the committee did the f did the same work and presented to parliament for adoption. They also argued that the second exercise had an invisible hand behind to help BoU officials implicated in the first probe to clear their names.

Kadaga’s decision that no fresh probe of BoU over closed banks should be carried out by COSASE has dealt a blow to BoU officials who thought they would clear their names, having been faulted in the first probe that stretched from Later October to late February 2019.

Days ago BoU Deputy Governor appeared before COSASE with some documents related to the Shs478 billion supposedly injected into CBL but were sent back. The Auditor General in the first probe faulted BoU officials for failure to account for Shs32o billion of that money.

Kadaga has advised Munyagwa to work on other entities and leave BoU alone. “I am sure that there i8s more than enough work concerning other entities before your committee that equally deserve the attention of your committee,” she wrote.

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