By Spy Uganda
COSASE on Thursday subjected dfcu legal officer William Ssekabembe to an oath after he gave contradicting information regarding the sale and hand over of Crane Bank to dfcu bank.
Ssekabembe told the committee on Thursday that Katimbo Edward, statutory manager of Crane Bank officially handed over all properties to them on the day of takeover. This however contradicted what Katimbo told the committee in December when he said that dfcu simply hijacked the properties without a formal handover and that he was even in his farm upcountry only to see on social media photos of dfcu officials taking over the defunct Bank.
Infact, COSASE chairman Abdul Katuntu played to Dfcu Bank managers an audio recording of Mugwanya denying he ever handed over CBL to them (Dfcu bank).
Also put on oath was former Managing Director of dfcu bank Juma Kisaame whom MPs said were tired of his contradictory statements on the acquisition of Shs570 billion bad book (written off loans).
dfcu bank officials failed to convince MPs on the Shs570 billion written off loans taken from CBL, because it was not in the Purchase and Assumption of liabilities agreement.
The MPs also established that dfcu Bank does not have the Chief government valuer’s report on CBL assets.
The MPs also established that the monetary values attached to each of CBL’s properties by independent valuer and government valuer differ sharply. For instance, the independent valuer tagged one of the buildings in Kampala at Shs500 million while the government chief valuer put it at Shs2 billion. Another building valued at Shs400 billion by an independent valuer was valued at Shs1.6 billion by the chief government valuer. The MPs believe some CBL assets were undervalued by Dfcu bank to make profit.
BoU sold CBL assets based on due diligence of dfcu bank without the central bank making its own evaluation of the assets. Dfcu bank signed confidentiality agreement on November 13, 2016 before the commercial bank bid for the assets of CBL on December 20, 2017. dfcu bank said it relied on a partial inventory report by PwC before entering into P & A with BoU on January 25, 2017.
Kisaame could not give the MPs satisfactory explanations about the process that led to transfer of CBL assets to its rival. dfcu bank officials also struggled to satisfy the MPs with explanations concerning the status of 46 branches of CBL whose landlord was Meera Investments that wants dfcu bank pay rent arrears.
The dfcu team was led by new Managing Director Mathias Katamba, the legal team and representatives of the shareholders.
The former owner of CBL, Sudhir Ruparelia and his lawyers were also in the house listening to dfcu bank officials present their case.
