By our reporter
It’s no longer a question of when but how The Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) will handle the investigations into the now troubled former BoU director in-charge supervision Justine Bagyenda.
Impeccable sources have confirmed the Authority launched its undercover investigative mechanisms last week to ascertain the wealth of Bagyenda and put into perspective of how she could have acquired all the properties in town under her name and the Billions of money found on her privates accounts that leaked to the media few weeks ago.
Like problems like coming in pairs, just two days ago, our snoop chanced on more transitions this time via mobile money where Bagyenda’s personal MTN Telephone number transferred a hooping SHS 500million to her son-in-law Robert Muhumuza just for home use i.e, buying salt for her daughter, bread, milk and ice cream for her grandchildren.
It’s against all this information in the public domain now that the Financial Intelligence Authority must come out and assert their powers and role in fighting money laundering, lest one would ask the role of the said authority since its inception. Remember that Bagyenda has been a member.
A whistle blower recently petitioned FIA demanding that Bagyenda should be investigated over her fat accounts so she can explain the source. And if convicted, should serve 20 yrs in jail.
The same whistle blower also petitioned the IGG and URA, asking the two institutions to probe Bagyenda’s wealth.
FIA executive director Sydney Asubo told journalists that the authority had opened inquiries into the matter.
FIA, is compiling the information about Bagyenda and her alleged wealth, which Asubo said will be shared with other agencies like IGG and the Police.
FIA is a government agency, established in 2014 by Act of Parliament to monitor, investigate and prevent money laundering in Uganda.
Last week, IGG Irene Mulyagonja quizzed Bagyenda over her alleged wealth which it is reported; she accumulated in the last six years, as director in charge of supervision.
Unconfirmed reports indicate the FIA met Bagyenda last week. IGG’s spokesperson Ali Munira said if Bagyenda is found guilty, she will lose her property and will be barred from holding office, according to the Leadership Code.
It was reported that Bagyenda had Shs19billion on three different accounts, which sparked a public debate on how she accumulated such amount of money, according to sources within six years.
BoU auditors were further shocked on learning that Bagyenda operates both Shillings and Dollar accounts in Diamond Trust Bank, Centenary and Barclays banks on which she is starching away the billions, although how she accumulated all this money has remained subject to lots of queries.
Sources reveal that Bagyenda owns account number 5106903… in Diamond Trust Bank described as ‘low start savings account’ which as of December 01, 2017, had a total of Shs11.4 billion.
“The same account is expecting another Shs429 million on March, 07 2018 when the Shs179 million she fixed in September 2017 at 10 per cent rate matures,” one of the sources revealed.
Barclays Bank Ltd said in a press release that disciplinary action was being taken against the employee responsible for unauthorized access to Bagyenda’s accounts in line with the law and the policies.
“Internal company policies, protecting our customers’ personal data is an utmost priority for us as an organization,” the bank stated.
