MP Hamson Obua: Where was BoU when Crane Bank was commissioning illegalities?

By Watchdog reporter

Ajuri County Member of Parliament Hamson Obua has wondered where Bank of Uganda was when Crane Bank under property mogul Sudhir Ruparelia was commissioning all the alleged illegalities to the extent of ending up in Courts of Law.

Obua stressed out that under the law made by parliament, it is a role of the Central Bank to supervise all commercial Banks in Uganda but questioned how Crane Bank managed to siphon all the alleged shs400 billon without its knowledge.

“We know that under parliament  the law made by parliament, it is the role by the central bank to supervise all commercial banks in Uganda so the fundamental questions we are asking the bank arriving from the litigation are one; where was the Central Bank during the commission of the alleged illegalities that has ended up in court, why did they fail to act as a body mandated by law to supervise all the commercial banks in Uganda, why act now not then, these are the fundamental questions we are asking,”said Obua.

The legislator further said that they are aware that the Central Bank also has the mandate to audit the performance of all commercial banks in the country thus inquiring whether BoU has Crane Bank audit reports or not and if they are already in the Auditor General’s office, they should be handed over to parliament accountability committee in order to reveal any inappropriate committed under the watch of Central Bank.

“if also to a greater extent there issues of audit that have reached the office of the Auditor General then that means it is within the reach of parliament,” he stated adding that “Because through one of the four accountabilities committees we can be in a position to know that there were some inappropriates being committed under the watch of Central Bank,”

Obua further revealed that the Crane Bank litigation either way will have a huge impact on Uganda’s economy because cost may be awarded either way; may be to Central Bank which is good to the economy or to Crane Bank which will be bad for the taxpayers.

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