By our reporter
The Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has ordered Bank of Uganda to produce a full report regarding commercial banks which have collapsed over the years under unclear circumstances.
Two months ago, the committee sanctioned a special audit about the operations of BoU to unearth the source of the current conflict within the bank.
The committee called for an audit to understand how the Central Bank had handled the liquidation of several banks which collapsed.
Some of Banks which were taken over by the Central bank include Crane Bank, National Bank of Commerce, Global Trust Bank, Greenland bank among others.
According to the committee chairperson Abdul Katuntu, Central Bank has never provided any report on the banks it took over.
Katuntu says , the current conflict between Governor Emmanuel Mutebile and some of his staff is also a matter which doesn’t need to be under looked.
“The issue is not why the banks closed only but how the whole process was conducted because much as they closed the banks and took them over, they have never submitted final reports on the winding up of all those banks,” said Katuntu.
“The process is still ongoing and our concern is, how can a winding up process of a bank take years? For example there’s no final report with the winding process of Greenland, there’s no final report on the winding process of Cooperative Bank and other banks. We think there’s something which is not correct, that’s why we did an order for the audit,” he added.
Justine Bagyenda the supervision director should have compiled these reports before and after closing the banks.
Meanwhile, Anti- Corruption activists have welcomed the committee’s move but stressed the need to implement the recommendations that will be made.
Cissy Kagaba, the Executive Director for Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda says the Inspector General of Government should come out and demystify whether the banks were taken over legally or through other means.
