The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has said that she will not allow the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) to proceed with fresh investigations against Bank of Uganda.
Speaking to CEO East Africa magazine on Friday, Kadaga’s Press Secretary Sam Obbo revealed that the Speaker was going to officially write to the committee chairperson Mubarak Munyagwa and order him to put a halt on the move.
“The Speaker disagrees with what’s going on and she said she is going to write officially and stop him [Munyagwa]. She said, under the law, he cannot duplicate the work, more so when the House is waiting for formal response on the recommendations,” said Obbo.
Kadaga’s comment follows a number of petitions from concerned citizens asking her to stop Munyagwa’s move to reopen the BoU probe.
One of the petitioners, Micheal Busingye said the probe will be a waste of time and tax payers’ money as an investigation was already concluded by Munyagwa’s predecessor Katuntu in February this year.
Under parliamentary rules of procedure, Busingye said the committee does not have powers to re-examine the case.
“Under Parliamentary rules of procedure, the said committee does not have powers to re-examine its reports. To put this into perspective, Cosase had an over three months interaction regarding the Bank of Uganda matter whereat it came up with observations, recommendations and is waiting treasury memorandum for corrective actions to be taken,”Busingye stated in his petition dated May 31, 2019.
“As parliament is principally your jurisdiction and as these exercises cost tax payers’ money and must be performed lawfully, this is to request you to prevail on the said committee not to expend state resources [money and time] on re-examination which is outside its mandate.”
Sam Kakuru, a student of Uganda Christian University Mukono on behalf of 100 other concerned Ugandans also petitioned the speaker to stop Munyagwa’s committee from resurrecting a concluded report.
Speaking to Daily Monitor on Wednesday, the Director for Communication and Public Affairs at Parliament, Chris Obore assured the petitioners as well Members of Parliament who have questioned Munyagwa’ s motive that their concerns will be answered by the Speaker in accordance to the Parliament Rules of Procedure.
“The committees do their work on behalf of Parliament and the Speaker supervises all committees. The Speaker will look at the merits in the petitions and the rules that guide Parliament to take a decision,” Obore said.
Last month, Munyagwa re-opened the probe despite being finalized and sealed off by his predecessor Abdu Katuntu.
He went ahead to summon into the committee the deputy governor Louis Kasekende, asking him about the auditing of BoU’s accounts and how the Central Bank has been operating for decades without an Accounting Officer.
He also sent him back to bring accounting documents after Bank of Uganda failed to account for over Shs470 billion injected into Crane Bank and blow away in less than six months.
However, according to our sources, it is alleged that the Kawempe South Member of Parliament is trying to play on the minds of fellow legislators, to give Dr Kasekende a chance to table accountability of Shs470 billion which BoU failed to account for during Katuntu’s probe period.
Since the Katuntu report was passed, some BoU officials have been working hard on undoing the ‘guilt’ created by their sloppy appearance before Katuntu’s chaired Cosase which showed the world how incompetent BoU managers were, and how carelessly they Crane Bank and six other banks.
