Finally Auditor General starts auditing Bank of Uganda

By our reporter

At last, the Auditor General has started the long awaited audit of Bank of Uganda with special interest in how the central bank handled the closure of at least seven banks.

After back and forth correspondences, including a no-nonsense letter from the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, the Auditor General on Thursday May 17, started the process of scrutinizing how the Central Bank managed the closure of banks including Crane Bank, National Bank of Commerce, Teefe, Greenland Bank, International Credit Bank, Global Trust and Cooperative Bank.

Parliament has realized that for all the years the Central Bank has been closing banks, it had never submitted any audited report of the closures to Parliament.

However when the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) headed by Abdu Katuntu demanded an audit into the Central bank’s role, there was resistance from the BoU officials.

Using a back door of the deputy speaker Jacob Oulanyah, the Auditor General was told to stay the audit. Mr Oulanyah had written to the Auditor General saying “please note that the motion to investigate Bank of Uganda over its role in the supervision of financial institutions has been deferred. Parliament shall continue monitoring the progress of the case.”

However Speaker Kadaga in a May 10th letter wrote to Auditor General Mr John Muwanga saying there is no public institution above scrutiny and that auditing the closures of banks had “nothing to do with the roles in the supervision of financial institutions”.

Also Read https://www.watchdoguganda.com/kadaga-orders-auditor-general-to-audit-bous-over-7-defunct-banks/

It was however revealed that Bank of Uganda was especially tight on information regarding the closure of the National Bank of Commerce as well as Crane Bank for reasons best known to BoU officials.