By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: The speaker of Parliament Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga has thwarted efforts by Kawempe South legislator Mubarak Munyagwa aka ‘Mugaati gwa bata’ to set up a sub-committee under the Committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) to undo his predecessor Abdul Katuntu’s earlier achievements on BoU audit.
Munyagwa, who is the COSASE chairperson, recently instituted a sub-committee to repeat an inquisition into the sale of commercial banks by the Bank of Uganda and to audit BoU’s operations for the past decades without an accounting officer. However, the sub-committee sparked off outcry from several legislators and numerous Ugandans, who argued that it would be a wastage of time and tax payers’ money to handle a matter that was already investigated by the COSASE under the leadership of the incorruptible Abdul Katuntu.
Many legislators voiced their disagreements with Munyagwa’s Sub-Committee, arguing that it was a plot to help BoU officials led by Dr. Louis Kasekende to submit doctored audits for BoU operations during the sale of commercial banks and the shady appropriation of Shs300Bn, which was used to recapitalize Crane bank by BoU, before it was wound down and sold to dfcu bank. Now Kadaga has added her weight onto those opposing Munyagwa’s sub-committee by rejecting and describing it as a duplication of CASASE work. Sam Obbo, the Press Secretary to the Speaker of Parliament on Friday afternoon confirmed the development after an earlier engagement with Kadaga in the morning.
“I met her today,” Mr. Obbo said adding that: “the Speaker disagrees with what’s going on and she has said she is going to write officially and stop him (Mubarak Munyagwa.” Ms. Kadaga said, according to Mr. Obbo, under the law, he (Munyagwa) cannot duplicate the work; more so when the House is waiting for a formal response, on the recommendations”. Earlier, the Parliament leadership had assured the country that Kadaga was to deliver a judgement on the fresh inquiry initiated by Munyagwa and his deputy Ibrahim Kasozi, also the Makindye East MP after an uproar.
