Uganda’s main opposition Political Party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has called for the sacking of Bank of Uganda Governor Emmanuel Mutebile over the unending mega scandals at the bank.
While addressing a weekly press conference on Monday, the party spokesperson also Kira Municipality Member of Parliament Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda said the scandals at the Central Bank are as a result of the incompetent and aging Governor at the helm of the institution.
“There will be scandals one after the other , others will go unreported but they will be there because Mutebile is sleeping yet he is the one running the Central Bank. He only wakes up when more scandals are committed by his officials,” said Ssemujju.
The party mouthpiece further stated that If Mutebile and other people at BoU had been fired; the country would not have such scandals happening.
“For as long as Mutebile and others are still in charge expect the worst. Someone sane would have retired Mutebile and some of the other leaders at BoU long time ago. I don’t know if you have seen him walk recently, he himself is a walking scandal.”
A few days ago, Lt Col Edith Nakalema, the head of State House Anti-Corruption Unit confirmed that they were carrying out an investigation on the central bank over its procurement and supply chain activities.
“A number of senior bank personnel, customs and Civil Authority personnel are being questioned” with regard to the Bank’s procurement and supply chain activities,” she said in a statement.
Collaborated reports indicated that some top directors at Bank of Uganda were under investigation by police, military and State House Anti-Corruption Unit for illegally printing and smuggling money in the excess of sh90 billions.
Col Nakalema however said the operation will not affect the normal running of the Central Bank.
The illicit huge monies Nakalema’s team alongside Police are probing, entered the country through Entebbe International Airport from France aboard a private airplane which usually transports BoU new currency.
Later on, government Spokesperson Ofwono Opondo speaking to the media at Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, said the investigation so far seemed to point that there was no additional money printed by either officials of BoU or somebody and later delivered to Uganda.
“Our investigations point to some business people and other organisations who were simply taking advantage of a cheap flight that had already been chartered by Bank of Uganda,” he disclosed.
The government mouthpiece said that BoU procured items from France and chartered a plane from Paris to deliver its consignment of 20 pallets to Uganda on April 27, 2019 with the bank staff.
After they had checked and cleared the items, one of the staff noticed that the plane was carrying additional five pallets.
According to Opondo, the extra pallets belonged to 13 private individuals and organisations including the United Nations (UN) irregularly loaded unto the cargo plane. No other items were meant to be on the plane except Bank of Uganda’s.
“Very surprisingly the United Nations and USAID are among them. The plane carried UN supplies like blood reagents, solar equipment and other items.There were also goods for other local Ugandans like Charles Mbire, Mandela Millers and Uptake Uganda Investment Limited.
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