“I met her today; the Speaker disagrees with what’s going on and she has said she is going to write officially and stop him (Munyagwa). She said, under the law, he cannot duplicate the work; more so when the House is waiting for a formal response, on the recommendations,” said Sam Obbo, the Press Secretary to the Speaker of Parliament.
The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga is opposed to planned moves by the new Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) Chairman, Hon Mubarak Munyagwa to start an equivalent of a fresh probe into Bank of Uganda and has vowed to stop it.
In a phone conversation with CEO East Africa Magazine, Sam Obbo, the Press Secretary to the Speaker said: “The Speaker disagrees with what’s going on and she has said she is going to write officially and stop him (Munyagwa),” Obbo said, adding: “She (Kadaga) said, under the law, he cannot duplicate the work; more so when the House is waiting for a formal response, on the recommendations.”
KAdaga’s comments come in the wake of two separate petitions to the Speaker by concerned Ugandans- a Mr Michael Businge a resident of Nsambya, a suburb of Kampala and a Mr. Sam Kakuru a student of Uganda Christian University who argue that COSASE’s attempt to probe BoU afresh when the current recommendations have not been acted upon are a waste of taxpayer’s money and a possible “syndicated move to put the responsible offices off the hook.”
According to reports by Daily Monitor, a local independent daily, on Tuesday, 28th May 2019, Munyagwa, also the Kawempe South MP, named a select sub-committee to probe what he says were unconcluded issues in the BoU probe. The five-member committee is headed by his vice chairperson, Mr Ibrahim Kasozi of Makindye East Constituency.
COSASE is also reported to have met with BOU officials led by the deputy Governor, Dr Louis Kasekende, and tasked them to respond to outstanding Auditor General’s queries, a move that some of the MPs have interpreted to mean, re-opening the probe that was concluded by then COSASE chairman and Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu.
Katuntu in his February 21 report found BoU’s closure of 7 defunct banks to be severally in breach of the Financial Institutions Act 2004, under which the same banks were closed. The Katuntu committee among other recommendations asked that the named errant BoU officials be held criminally liable and also proposed several reforms in the governance of the central bank.
The committee also recommended that the shareholders of the closed banks be compensated for the losses because BoU officials did not follow the due process.
One of the major findings during the probe was UGX270 billion in untraceable funds, out of the UGX478.8bn that BoU is said to have injected into rescuing Crane Bank.
Several MPs including Nwoya County MP Simon Oyet, Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi, Bukomansimbi South MP Deogratius Kiyingi and Ajuri County MP Hamson Obua said the fresh probe was suspicious, a duplication and wastage of resources and time.
In a recent exclusive interview with CEO East Africa Magazine, the Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon. Rebecca Kadaga said that parliament was waiting on the executive to take action on the recommendations of the Katuntu report.