By Andrew Irumba
BoU officials suffered un terrible constipation before COSASE Mps when they were tasked to explain how they spent Shs478.8 billion in the processes of closing down and selling of Crane Bank Ltd (CBL) to Dfcu Bank in 2016, TheSpy Uganda reports.
While appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) on Monday, the Central bank officials failed to account how they spent the said amount and instead started looking at each other in their already turned red eyes.
This was revealed by Hon.Anita Among, COSASE Vice chairperson also Bukedea Woman Member of Parliament during a brief press meeting on Monday.
“They tendered in documents that could not convince the committee members on how Shs478.8 billion was spent. Some of the documents were duplicated by BoU officials,” Among revealed.
She also said that the loan book of Crane Bank was an irony as there are instances where two clients are attached to the same loans.
At the time of takeover by BoU, CBL loans amounting to Shs768 billion constituted 65 percent of the total assets. Shs529 billion worth of net loans were transferred to Dfcu Bank except the insider loans.
MPs wondered as to how a business oriented man would use Shs478billions to close a bank that needed only Shs157 billion capitalization to stay in operation and sail through the turbulent economic times!
Currently, the committee is probing top Central Bank officials over their role in the alleged irregular closure and sale of seven commercial banks between 1993 and 2017 as raised by the Auditor General (AG) Mr.John Muwanga in his 2017 forensic audit report on BoU.
In his report, the AG questions the Governor Emmanuel Mutebile and his team on the expenditure of more than Shs478.8 billion which they said was for liquidity support and other interventions in Crane Bank after they took over the management on October 20 2016.
The AG enquired into the source of the money BoU injected in Crane Bank and wondered how Mutebile’s team arrived at Shs478.8 billion.
The closed banks include; Teefe Bank (1993), International Credit Bank Ltd (1998), Greenland Bank (1999), The Co-operative Bank (1999), National Bank of Commerce (2012), Global Trust Bank (2014) and Crane Bank Ltd (CBL) that was sold to dfcu in 2016.
