By our reporter
President Yoweri Museveni has summoned the Inspector General of Government Irene Mulyagonja and Bank of Uganda Governor Emmanuel Mutebile to mediate the ongoing ‘dead heat’ between the two government officials.
Museveni’s intervention comes at a time when the two officials are bickering over Bank of Uganda issues.
Apparently Mulyagonja insists that she must investigate the Central Bank to rule out whether the staff reshuffle they made meet the minimum legal standards or not which move the governor doesn’t agree with.
Mutebile made sweeping changes at Bank of Uganda in February, with the reshuffle affecting eight executive directors, 13 directors, 24 assistants/deputy directors and four staff members which saw bank’s Director for Supervision Justine Bagyenda packing.
Bagyenda was replaced with Dr Tumubweine Twinemanzi though she refused to hand over office saying she was illegally fired.
The IGG responded by ordering that the changes be halted until investigations are concluded.
But in a hard hitting 5-paged letter, Mr Mutebile has said the BOU will reject the IGG’s attempts to interfere in the matters of the Central Bank, because complying would set a “dangerous precedent”.
“Your impugned directive to the Board not to ratify the Governor’s decisions if implemented would have catastrophic effect on the financial sector of Uganda and the economy,” Mr Mutebile wrote.
“The Bank of Uganda shall safeguard its independence and ensure that it maintains public confidence in its ability to safeguard a sound financial system free of external influence,” Mr Mutebile wrote in his no-holds- barred March 19 letter.
