The Bank of Uganda Governor Professor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile has written a terse letter to the Inspector General of Government (IGG) Justice Irene Mulyagonja Kakooza, advising her to stop interfering with the central bank internal operations.

Prof. Mutebile was reacting to a March 12 letter from Justice Mulyagonja, in respect to the early February retirement of former Bank of Uganda Executive Director for Bank Supervision, who had challenged the BoU decision to send her into early retirement, and also refused to hand over office to her successor, Dr. Twinemanzi Tumubweine.

But in his five-page strongly-worded letter that is copied to among others President Yoweri Museveni, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda and finance minister Matia Kasaija, Prof. Mutebile draws the attention of the IGG to Article 162 (2) of the Constitution that guarantees the independence of the BoU from direction of any authority in the country. Others copied in include the Attorney General, the Auditor General and members of the BoU Board of Directors.

‘In performing its functions, the Bank of Uganda shall conform to this Constitution but shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority,’ the Article states in part.

Mutebile adds: ‘The Article in question is clear, unequivocal and unambigious on the Independence of the Bank of Uganda and the fact that Bank of Uganda is not subject to the direction or control of any person or authority and therefore no outsider, including your office can interfere with the decisions of the Bank of Uganda’.

Further, to reinforce his argument, in the March 19 letter Prof. Mutebile makes reference to judgments on authority made by the courts in respect to the IGG’s directives regarding some financial institutions, pointing out the Bank of Uganda vs COWE Appeal No. 35 of 2007 and MC 303 of 2013 in respect to Uganda Development Bank Board of Directors, its Chief Executive Officer Patricia Ojangole and 4 others vs the Attorney General, both of which upheld the independence of the BoU.

According to Prof. Mutebile, the IGG’s directive in respect to Ms. Bagyenda’s retirement is ‘impugned’ and if effected, will negatively impact on the operations of BoU and the entire banking sector in the country.

Ms. Bagyenda who, in her capacity as ED bank supervision was responsible for overseeing the activities of commercial banks in the country has been on the spot, linked to the closure and subsequent boarding off of Crane Bank.

Her name has also surfaced in financial transactions of whopping sums, raising eyebrows with accountability oversight institutions like Parliament, whose committee on Commission, Statutory Agencies and State Enterprises (COSASE) has ordered the Auditor General John Muwanga to interest himself in Ms. Bagyenda’s finances.

Indeed, Budadiri West MP Nathan Nandala Mafabi, an accountant and lawyer, has dubbed Ms. Bagyenda’s transactions as ‘money laundering’.

 

President Yoweri Museveni has suspended two Immigration directorate officials pending investigations by police and Inspectorate of Government
The two are Godfery Sasaga, the Director Immigration and Commissioner Anthony Namara.
In letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs which was copied to the Permanent Secretary in the same ministry, Museveni directed the two to handover office to PS Dr Benon Mutambi Mugisha.
In his letter Museveni says the two should be investigated on the wide range of things stretching to misuse of funds but most important the procurement of E-Passport.
Eagle Online has established that before Museveni’s action, he had sanctioned investigations and they were reportedly being carried out by a Special Forces Command operatives led by a one Musinguzi and another man from the Privatization Unit.

The procurement of the E-Passport has reportedly pitted two camps against each other: one is allegedly led by a State Minister in the finance hailing from Western Uganda and in his camp are reportedly a senior powerful civil servant lady around the President and a senior Minister also around the President and hailing from Busoga. The other camp, according to sources, comprises another influential member of the first family in whose camp the two immigration officials were. It is this camp, sources say, that emerged winner of the procurement process.

Further, according to the sources, in one of the meetings held in State House Nakasero, the two camps traded insults before Museveni leading to the investigations. Uganda is in the process of actualizing the E-Passport and the process has been on for the last two years.

Meanwhile, as the two immigration officials are being investigated by the CIID and IGG, the Internal Affairs PS, Dr Mutambi is also reportedly under investigation at IGG in relation to his tenure at Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), where he was the Chief Executive Officer. It is alleged that Dr. Mutambi, while at ERA, he and others formed a company which in turn got contracts to supply materials to same agency.

Efforts to get comment from the above officials were futile by press time.

The sacked former Executive Director of Supervision of commercial banks at Bank of Uganda Justine Bagyenda yesterday afternoon faced a scorching time as she was grilled by a tough-talking Inspector General of Government(IGG) Irene Mulyagonja over illicit accumulation of wealth and unexplained fat bank accounts.
Bagyenda used the cover of the basement parking to disguise from the prying eyes of the public and gain access to the IGG’s chambers on Jubilee House along Parliament Avenue where she was interrogated for the better part of the afternoon.
A source who saw Bagyenda leaving the IGG’s chambers at around 4:00pm say she was disheveled and fatigued following an afternoon of uncomfortable questions.
Bagyenda was asked to explain how she built condominium plans at Makerere Hill Road and Sunderland Avenue in Bugolobi and bought massive plots of land at Kimera Close and Balikudembe Road but she could not give definitive answers.
Bagyenda was also then asked to explain the source of a staggering wealth in several city banks that is said to be amounting to billions of shillings and millions of dollars that was found stashed on different accounts among the in Diamond Trust Bank and Barclays Bank. However sources at IGG say Bagyenda again could not furnish decisive evidence on the sources of the money.
The IGG also quizzed Bagyenda about a hard-hitting non-compliance report by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) that indicates that her tax accountabilities could be Shs7 billion. She faces separate charges of tax evasion.
IGG Mulyagonja confirmed to Eagle Online that Bagyenda was quizzed but declined giving details of the next course of action that the inquiry will take.

Bagyenda, whose contract at BoU was supposed to end June 2018, went on annual leave on January 22, but in a reshuffle announced by BoU Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, she was retired. In her place Mutebile appointed Dr Tumubweine Twinemanzi the new Director in charge of Supervision.
Bagyenda before returning to handover wrote to Prof. Mutebile protesting the manner in which she was laid off. In the letter, the sources said, Ms. Bagyenda told Prof. Mutebile she would return to BoU and continue with her work.
Early this month, we published a series of stories detailing the depths of Ms Bagyenda’s bank accounts she has with the bank, including one about how she has millions sitting on different accounts.
The stories prompted the banks mentioned in the leaked documents to investigate the source of information have reported apologized to Bagyenda confirming that the leaks are true. And the bank leadership claims, their staff were ‘compromised’ and actively participated in leaking account details of their client.

Despite the recent changes in the security hierarchy in the in country, there are still cases of murders and disappearances in the city.
Following the numerous kidnaps and murders of especially women, attacks of homes in the great Masaka region which started last year, President Museveni recently made changes in security, dropping the Security Minister Lt. Gen. Henry Tumukunde and Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura.
This was prompted by the kidnap and murder of Susan Magara who was later to be murdered by her captors before dumping her dead body on Entebbe road.
After the changes, President Museveni stated that there had been lapses in the old security leadership.
Referring to some of the police officers as bean weevils, the Museveni argued the new leadership work together to improve the wanting security situation especially in the city and its suburbs.
However this has not happened as disappearance of women in Kampala is still taking place.
The latest is the sad news of the disappearance of a Kyambogo University student which took place this week.
The girl who has been identified by relatives as Elsie Nabbuti has been a third year student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies. She went missing since Saturday the March 17, 2018.
According to information from relatives and close friends to the missing Nabutti they last heard from her on Saturday.
They further state that when her friends tried calling her, all her phones were off but kept getting on in intervals but still no one was picking them up,”
“Nabutti has not surfaced to her home in Namboole where she stays with the cousin since Saturday and this has got her whole family worried,” says a friend who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The family has made a report at police station has mounted a search for this student.
Both police and family are requesting anyone who may have useful information leading to Nabutti’s whereabouts should report to the nearest police station or
The missing student is the second in just week after another Makerere University Business School student Sheila Igoe went missing last week on Wednesday and was found yesterday Tuesday dead in the city mortuary at Mulago.
This has left a lot in the minds of Ugandan whether the security situation in the country is improve or will continue deteriorating.

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah, says it is practically impossible for opposition African, Caribbean and Pacific – European Union (ACP-EU) to be represented in joint parliamentary assembly.
Oulanyah who is leading Uganda’s delegation to the 49th ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly in Brussels, Belgium from 19 to 24 March 2018 notes that European Union has proposed that the ACP side have representation of the opposition parties to the assembly, which he says is problematic.
“We are not saying there should be no opposition but we are only asking the basis of it and how do you arrange it,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker further added that unlike the European Parliament, the ACP members come from assemblies and that some of the members leading the delegations were from the opposition.
“If we are going to make it a system, how will we select which country should represent the opposition and opposition to what. I propose that on this point, we raise strong objections and when it comes to voting, we vote against it,” Oulanyah added.
He said this while presenting a report as a co-rapporteur on the ACP-EU relations post-Cotonou; a strong parliamentary dimension, Tuesday, 20 March 2018 at the ACP House in Brussels, Belgium.
Oulanyah called for the ACP Assembly to have legislative powers in order to berelevant and not just be a forum for discussions without any impact.
He added that these legislative functions should facilitate the oversight and representative roles of an assembly.
“The European Parliament represents their parties but the ACP is different. We are directly elected by our people and sent to our assemblies and these have sent us here,” he said. Adding “Our foot rests on the people we represent. How do we make these relevant to them?”
He said that the ACP-EU Assembly should not be equated to international NGOs arguing that the Pan African and East African Parliaments should be examples to be emulated in the post 2020 era.
“I am conscious of the difference that this particular framework had with national assemblies but how close can we go to what happens in national assemblies? This has already happened in other regional Parliaments. How do we begin thinking of having such legislative powers,” Oulanyah said.
The ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000, was concluded for a 20-year period from 2000 to 2020 is set expire on 29 February 2020.
The fundamental principles of the Cotonou Agreement include equality of partners, global participation, dialogue and regionalisation.
The Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) between the EU and 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) 0. Negotiations on the ‘post-Cotonou’ partnership shall officially begin before 1 September 2018.
Oulanyah also called for unity in the course of the negotiations with the European side stating that there is need to approach it as a block and not as the three regions as is being proposed by the ongoing African Union Summit in Kigali, Rwanda.
“The African block is in a meeting in Kigali right now and we are getting feelers from their statements and they are beginning to affect the context of our negotiations,” he stated.
Following his presentation, the ACP Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Hon Agnima Alain Michel Lobognon, asked the Deputy Speaker to draft a diplomatic statement to be sent to the African Union Summit stating that there is need for unity in the post-Cotonou negotiations.
Uganda’s delegation to the Assembly also has William Nokrach (PWD, Northern) and Suubi Kinyamatama(Rakai District).