Oberthur Fiduciaire, the French currency printer contracted by BoU to print and deliver an unspecified amount of Uganda Shilling banknotes to Uganda, has denied any wrong in the ongoing scandal in which unauthorised cargo found its way on what should have been a top-security exclusive flight.
Allen & Overy LLP, who are Oberthur Fiduciaire’s lawyers, in an email to CEO East Africa Magazine blamed the operator of the plane, chartered by them, who carried unauthorised cargo and didn’t bother to notify them beforehand.
Oberthur Fiduciare strongly rejected any claims and allegations that there was any extra and or unauthorised money on-board and or printed by them, saying: “Oberthur Fiduciaire confirms that the exact number of banknotes ordered by the BoU has been printed and delivered.”
The French firm also clarified that they are not associated with Oberthur Technologies SA, which is facing a 2.5 years ban from World Bank and partner agencies over a corruption scandal in Bangladesh.
CEO East Africa Magazine understands that Kuehne + Nagel International AG, a global transport and logistics company based in Schindellegi, Switzerland is the transporter hired by Oberthur Fiduciaire to transport the money to Uganda.
“Oberthur Fiduciaire further denies having committed any wrongdoing in relation to its business relationship with the BoU and the provision of banknotes,” wrote Allen & Overy LLP.
“For the sake of clarity, the MD-11 (The McDonnell Douglas MD-11) aircraft that was initially supposed to be used to ship banknotes to the BoU had been grounded in Kampala for technical reasons and replaced by a larger B747 (Boeing 747). The operator of the B747 has, without notifying Oberthur Fiduciaire, used the same flight to ship one pallet of replacement parts for the MD-11 and four pallets of regular cargo,” the law firm further clarified on behalf of Oberthur Fiduciare.
“Oberthur Fiduciaire eventually offered financial compensation to BoU in the form of a rebate on future transport costs as this was contrary to the contractual arrangements between BoU and Oberthur Fiduciaire,” concluded Allen & Overy LLP.
CEO East Africa Magazine has written to Uganda’s Civil Aviation Authority who manages Entebbe International Airport to corroborate this and will update this story in due course.
On June 14th Matooke Republic, a Kampala based news site reported that The official amount printed was a “70 million pieces of UGX5,000 notes” to totalling to UGX350 billion. The money was supposed to be flown in a privately chartered MD-11F aboard a M/s Kuenel + Nagel flight no. AJK4042/LGG-EBB on 26th April 2019.
However, there was a change of plan to another plane B747-400BCF at the last minute.
Kuenel + Nagel was reportedly paid USD196,931 as freight and insurance fees.
Matooke Republic also reported that Oberthur the company contracted to print the money went ahead to offer a remedy of $15,000 (about Shs57m) or a 10% discount on the next consignment.
An unconvinced BoU Governor, Prof Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, then called in State House’s Anti-Corruption Unit to investigate the matter.
A statement by Uganda Revenue Authority has since said that the 5 extra cargo pallets contained other cargo which belonged to various individuals / companies / organizations.
“As per normal customs clearance procedure, this cargo was offloaded into the licensed bonds at the airport and subsequently the owners made customs declarations, paid applicable taxes and Customs physically verified each consignment to ascertain accuracy and consistency with the declaration and released the goods to the owners,” read a statement by Dickson Kateshumbwa, the URA Customs Commissioner.
Some of the organisations/entities said to have had cargo on the said plane, include businessman Charles Mbiire and Omar Mandela’s Mandela Millers Ltd. A number of UN agencies as well as USAID, Ministry of Health and other private businesses have also been named by authorities as having had cargo on the said plane.