The government, through its spokesman Ofwono Opondo has rubbished information by police spokesman Fred Enanga that several Bank of Uganda officials are being investigated over printing ‘personal’ money.
Opondo also wants Enanga and the entire communication department in police to apologise because they are misleading Ugandans about nonexistent extra currency in the economy.
Last week, the State House Anti-corruption Unit and police arrested several central bank officials in charge of currency, procurement and security after a tip off that some senior officials had authorised printing of money in excess of about Shs90b.
The money was allegedly shipped into the country on the same chartered flight that carried official central bank currency notes in April.
On Monday, Enanga told journalists that CID had taken over investigations to find out how the extra cash was printed.
“CID has taken over all the inquiries into the irregularities surrounding the consignments of money that were printed in the related supply chain. The directorate will, however, work alongside Lt Col Edith Nakalema’s State House unit,” said Enanga.
However, Opondo said no extra money was printed and the investigations are not on currency printing but on illegal cargo found on the said chartered plane.
“We are only investigating the extra cargo on the charter plane. Legally this plane was supposed to have only cargo belonging to Bank of Uganda, but according to the Airway bills and customs documents at Entebbe International Airport, there were five extra consignments belonging to 13 individuals. That is what is being investigated,” Opondo said at the Media Centre on Tuesday.
According to Opondo, BoU procured items from France and chartered a plane from Paris to deliver its consignment to Uganda on April 27, 2019. However, after they had checked and cleared the items, one of the staff noticed that the plane was carrying extra cargo which prompted him to inform the top leadership of BoU.
“I don’t know where police got that information on extra printed money but the real matter being investigated is how the private individuals and diplomatic organizations had their cargo on the chartered plane by BoU,” added Opondo.
This extra cargo, according to Opondo had items such as acid batteries, medical equipment, and human blood apparatus among others according to documentation.
“I want to inform the public to stay calm, no extra money was dumped into the economy,” noted Opondo.
The police’s communications department did not pick our repeated calls for a followup.
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