By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: Efforts of Mubarak Munyagwa, the chairperson of the Committee for Statutory Enterprises and State Agencies (COSASE) to set up a sub-committee to re-investigate operations of  Bank of Uganda have hit a snag again,Spy Uganda can reveal.
This after no-nosense Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga rejected Munyagwa’s sub-committee, which was headed by his deputy Ibrahim Kasozi. Munyagwa had wanted the Sub-Committee to conduct an inquiry into how Bank of Uganda officials sold seven commercial banks and how it has been operating for decades without an Accounting officer and how its officials handled over Shs478Bn which was used to recapitalize former Crane Bank, before it was wound up and sold to dfcu bank. Kadaga argues that what Munyagwa wants to do was already done by former COSASE chairperson Abdul Katuntu, the Bugweri East MP and that there is no reason why Munyagwa should undertake the same task. The House adopted the Katuntu Committee report in February with recommendations on the culprits and proposed a raft of reforms at BoU.
Kadaga described the move by MPs on the COSASE as misguided and a waste of time. Kadaga also wondered why COSASE members would opt to waste time and tax payers’ money re-investigating BoU on the sale of seven commercial banks yet Parliament already pronounced itself on resolutions of the Katuntu committee report. By the time Kadaga reached her conclusion she had received at least three petitions requesting her to stop COSASE chairperson Munyagwa and members from wasting tax payers’ money and parliament’s time by probing a matter that was already handled by his predecessors. The petitioners included Businge, a resident of Nsambya, a suburb of Kampala,  Sam Kakuru a student of Uganda Christian University and Zahid Sempala, the spokesperson Uganda Poor Youth Movement.   The decision to probe BoU afresh came after the Office of the Auditor General rejected late accountability documents from Bank of Uganda officials. The deputy Governor of BoU, Dr Louis Kasekende, had written to John Muwanga, the AG, submitting boxes containing accountability documents on Shs478b BoU officials injected in Crane Bank before it was sold to dfcu at Shs200Bn. However, Muwanga rejected the documents and advised BoU to seek permission from Parliament. However, Munyagwa contends that  the Speaker is acting on framed up petitions by people who want BoU officials go scot free on the accountability for the Shs478Bn and other shady transactions which have to be thoroughly investigated.
