Auditor General John Muwanga has told Bank of Uganda that his office will not be able to carry out a fresh audit on the Shs478 billion which it injected in defunct Crane Bank.
In March 11, 2019, Deputy Governor BoU Dr Louis Kasekende wrote to Mr Muwanga requesting him to undertake a verification of documents that had not been availed during the audit.
“Regrettably, I am unable to undertake the verification since the report has been issued to the Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament on February 8, 2018. Any additional verifications on the already issued report can only be undertaken with the authority of Parliament,” the AG told Kasekende in a letter dated April 4, 2019.
“We will keep the documents and wait for further communication from Cosase [Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises].”
In October 2016, BoU took over Crane Bank on grounds of undercapitalization, placed it under receivership. During that time, the Central Bank injected Shs478 billion in the commercial bank’s liquidity process.
Crane Bank was later in January 2017 sold off to dfcu Bank.
In a February 8,2019 confidential audit report to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, Muwanga revealed that Shs272.6 billion of the Shs478 billion that was meant for Crane Bank liquidity support, could not be traced anywhere.
AG found that BoU officials approved and remitted $53.16 million (more than Shs195 billion) to Crane Bank by Telegraphic Transfers (TTs).
The money was allegedly requested by undisclosed Crane Bank customers and was later released through the bank’s Nostro Account 3582025085001 after BoU officials sent instructions to Citi Bank in New York.
In defence, Kasekende said Crane Bank upgraded the banking software from the Bank Master Core system to T24 system, bringing out the “mismatch” in information and that linking the two systems by dfcu Bank was a tedious process that required more time.
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