By Our Reporter
Officials at Bank of Uganda (BoU) have been busted for allegedly hatching a sinister plot to compensate Dfcu bank with over Shs48Bn, for vacating properties that they had illegally grabbed from tycoon Sudhir Ruperelia’s Meera Investments LTD.
This investigative on-line news paper recently revealed how Dfcu bank had made a decision to rescind the purchase of 48 properties from Bank of Uganda, which were originally occupied by Crane Bank before Dfcu bought it from BoU in 2016.
It should be noted that when Dfcu bought Crane Bank Limited (CBL), it inherited all assets and liabilities that CBL initially owned, including its 48 branches.
However, little did Dfcu know that Crane bank didn’t own the properties but had leased them from Meera Investments Ltd. Acting on ill advice from their lawyers of Ssebalu and Company Advocates, Dfcu bank went ahead to transfer certificate of ownership of these properties from Meera Investments into the bank’s names.
However, later court declared that Dfcu’s acts of taking over Meera Investments properties were illegal, hence null and void. Court also ordered that Dfcu bank gives tycoon Sudhir and Meera Investments vacant possession of the properties and compensate them all the monies they have lost during the Bank’s illegal occupation of the properties.
After realising that they had been duped by their lawyers and that they had no option but to vacate theb buildings dfcu bank officials decided to hatch a plot with BoU officials to exploit the situation.
dfcu bosses started by passing a decision not to purchase the 48 properties from Bank of Uganda and decided to relocate all their branches from the constested properties, alhtough they are doing so behind the scenes.
But they undertake the process of relocating their branches from Meera Investements properties, dfcu officials are hatching a plan to make BoU compensate them with Shs48Bn for agreeing to vacate the properties and rescinding the deal to buy them like they had offered before.
What is baffling many business experts to explain how dfcu bank wants BoU to compensate them for vacating properties they had illegally grabbed from Sudhir and Meera Investtments LTD, instead of of compensating the property owners (Sudhir and Meera Investments.)
What’s even most shocking is that there are some unscrupulous officials in BoU who are agitating for this compensation, claiming that Dfcu bank rightly deserves it, although these ones have left analysts wondering if they don’t stand to benefit, reason why they agitate for the compensation.
Instead of Dfcu bank compensating Sudhir’s Meera Investments for the billions of money they lost during the time Dfcu has been illegally occupying their properties, they are demanding Shs48Bn from BoU as compensation.
Spy Uganda has established that Dfcu’s managing director, Mathias Katamba, wrote a letter to BoU Governor Tumusiime Mutebile, confirming the development, and that, the Central Bank, will pay Shs48Bn tax payers’ money to Dfcu as a result of the failed transaction over Meera Investment Properties that they had grabbed and illegally occupied until court threw them out.
But one wonders why tax payers would pay Shs48Bn to Dfcu for vacating property that was first of all acquired illegally from Crane Bank and Meera nvestments?
Secondly, given the fact that this property was acquired at 10% of the total investment that Dfcu injected into the acquisition process of Crane Bank, it does not make sense for the bank to be paid Shs48Bn tax payers’ money for vacating Meera properties, which they had illegally grabbed.
It should be recalled thta when Spy Uganda broke the story that Dfcu bank had finalized plans to lay off staff that were operating branches that were illegally acquired from Crane Bank to pave way for the repossession of the same by Meera Investments, Dfcu Management refuetd the news.
It was not long before documents leaked indicating that dfcu had written to BoU indicating that they were no longer intrested in buying the properties they had inherited from Crane Bank. Other documents that leaked indicated that Dfcu had called for bids from companies for consturction and relocation of 32 of their branches across the country.
The development, which was first denied by Dfcu, was also confirmed by the Central Bank in its annual report for the financial year, 2018/2019, in which it stated that;
“Dfcu in a letter dated September 12, 2019 communicated its decision to exercise its option to rescind its interest in purchasing the 48 properties pursuant to clause 8.7 of the agreement…”
According to the report, which is signed by the Governor of the Central Bank, Prof. Emmanuel Mutebile, it is confirmed that Dfcu will exit the properties in the wake of tough legal battles that were instituted by Sudhir to save his property from the greedy alliance of mafias Dfcu and BoU.
“As part of rescinding of this purchase, Dfcu will return to BoU certificates of title for Meera Investments Limited, properties and requires BoU to pay to Dfcu Bank Limited the net book value of the properties recorded in the assets and inventory compilation report as at October 20, 2016,” BoU’s annual report, states.
However, this development proves the high level of incompetency at the Central Bank and also exposes the mafia-like circumstances that led to the fraudulent sale of Crane Bank to Dfcu, on top of the parasitic tendencies of the BoU-Dfcu bank mafia, who now want to siphon tax payers’ money under the guise of compensating Dfcu bank for illegal profiting from Meera Investments properties.
