By Andrew Irumba
Embattled former Bank of Uganda Director In charge of Supervision Justine Bagyenda has on Monday failed to appear before parliamentary Appointments Committee (PAC) over her new job appointment as had been expected.
Bagyenda was recently re-appointed by Finance Minister Matia Kasaija as a board member to the Finance Intelligence Authority (FIA), the same body investigating her for alleged money laundering.
She was supposed to meet the committee chaired by Speaker Rt.Hon.Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga but to the surprise of committee members, she opted not to show up to avoid being embarrassed and humiliated. Independent sources told TheSpy Uganda that Bagyenda snubbed the highly anticipated face-off with the no-nonsense members of parliament who had vowed to ‘un-cover’ her on the advice of one of her most trusted lawyers, Timothy Masembe of MMAKS Advocates. “We came very prepared for her
It should be remembered that MPs had vowed to block Bagyenda’s reappointment on the board.
In July, MPs led by Manjiya County MP Hon.John Nambeshe and Kasambya County’s Louis Mbwatekamwa Gaffa revealed that they would do anything to block her re-appointment to the board, because it was the same board investigating her alleged money laundering.
“We are against Ms. Bagyend’s reappointment to this position on grounds that she was sent into early retirement by Bank of Uganda Governor Tumusiime Emanuel Mutebile recently and she used her position to amass wealth as her leaked bank accounts indicate, she has close to shs20 billion,” said Nambeshe.
“In section 25(4) of the Anti-money laundering Act , you cannot reappoint a person who is seen to have moral turpitude like Mrs. Bagyenda having amassed wealth primitively,” he added.
Mbwantekamwa questioned how Bagyenda, a supervisor of commercial banks, became a billionaire in such as short a time.
“We are here to appeal to members of the appointments committee that we are not going to accept this; Ugandans are watching and the population is becoming poorer, every other day,” said Mbwatekamwa.
In march this year, Diamond Trust Bank revealed that one of their employees had leaked Bagyenda’s fat Bank Account details and that management was taking serious disciplinary measures against the employee. It was not different from Backlays,the employee who leaked the information to the media was being ‘purged’,the Bank announced in March.
