Evidence recovered from the homes of six Bank of Uganda officials, following a raid by the police has revealed the unauthorised printing of excess currency notes, Fred Enanga has said.
The homes of the suspects, still in police detention as investigations continue, were searched by a joint security team over the weekend.
Enanga, the police spokesperson also told the press Monday that ongoing investigations on serial numbers of printed currency notes now in possession of the Central Bank will help establish whether they are ‘fake or genuine but unofficially printed.’
Last week, the Col. Edith Nakalema-led State House Anticorruption Unit arrested several central bank officials in charge of currency, procurement and security after a tip off that some senior officials there had authorised printing of money in excess of about Shs90b.
The money was allegedly shipped into the country on the same chartered flight that carried official central bank currency notes in April.
Also arrested were officials from the Uganda Revenue Authority’s Customs Department, airport police officers and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) staff.
Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile was quick to issue a statement saying the Central Bank received a currency consignment but during the verification process, the staff reported an anomaly in the inventory of the expected consignment.
“Therefore, I requested the Anti-Corruption Unit of State House to investigate the matter. The unit has started investigations and BoU is fully co-operating with the process,” Mr Mutebile said.
But according to a local daily, Enanga said the searches were done in the homes of the officials and a number of documents were recovered.
“With time, we shall get how much was involved, how much (money) has been recovered, what was genuine (currency), [and] what was unofficial, but genuine money,” he said, adding that police are investigating whether the established procedures to print money were duly followed.
Col. Nakalema on Sunday claimed preliminary findings indicated no extra money was carried into the country as initial reports had suggested.
