By Benson Tumusiime
Last week, the head of State house anti-corruption unit Lt.Col.Edith Nakalema raided post bank Uganda Ltd on allegations of abuse of office by nine senior managers.
The raid befell when a whistle blower wrote to the Managing director Mr. Steven N. Mukweli citing the irregularities in the finance and sales departments of the 93 year old bank.
Those implicated included the General Manager Finance, Jackson Mwesigwa who is accused of syphoning billions of shillings from the bank.
Results from the yet to be released probe by the internal auditors reveal abuse of office and thus recommended that Mr Mwesigwa and eight others be suspended for a month, to pave way for a more comprehensive investigation.
The suspension letters were dished out towards the end of last month.
Since their suspension, Mr Mwesigwa has been moving around several offices, seeking for help, to get back at the bank, even before the final result of his investigation is out. And in doing so, he wants to turn tables and focus attention to the management of Post Bank, rather than himself and his suspended colleagues.
It was little surprise that operatives from the State House Anti-Corruption Unit stormed the bank’s main office on Nkrumah Road on Friday. They were led by Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema; several journalists were in tow, ready to capture images of ‘a senior bank official being arrested.’
Lt.Col. Nakalema met with the managing director Mukweli and other top managers including the Executive Director.
During the meeting in the bank’s boardroom, Nakalema read out allegations of abuse of office, sent by a whistleblower now believed to be one of the suspended nine.
However, Nakalema didn’t take interest in the accusations against the suspended nine officials. She also had among other allegations, charges dating as far back as 2008 to 2010, this website has learned.
“Before they entered Post Bank offices, security operatives were deployed on the streets around the bank. Several others entered the facility causing confusion and panic among staff and customers of the bank”, Matsiko Abdu, a customer said.
After the meeting, at which it was agreed that a joint statement by Central Bank, Post Bank and Nakalema’s team be released, the State House Anti-Corruption Unit hastily issued one on Saturday.
It read in part: “The matter under investigation is for abuse of office and a number of senior bank personnel are under investigation. Bank operations remain uninterrupted. This investigation is being carried out in consultation with the Bank of Uganda and Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. Further updates will be provided in due course.”
Police grills Finance Manager Post bank
Meanwhile information reaching the Spy Uganda news desk indicates that the finance Manager at post bank Uganda Ltd Mr. Jackson Mwesigwa was on Friday grilled for eight hours by police officers at Criminal investigations directorate Kibuli on allegations of abuse of office. Efforts to get a comment on the story were futile by press time.
