Former Bank of Uganda executive director in charge of supervision Justine Bagyenda’s woes are not about to end.
Whereas she had tactfully skipped Parliamentary vetting as Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) board member nominee, Bagyenda has yet again been summoned to appear before parliamentary committee investigating the undisputed closure of seven commercial banks by the Central Bank.
The fresh probe was engineered by Auditor General Mr. John Muwanga who in April this year commenced an audit whose findings indicate Bank of Uganda violated various procedures undertaken to close or sell private financial institutions.
The seven banks closed between 1993 and 2017 include Teefe, ICB, Cooperative, Greenland, Global Trust, National Bank of Commerce and the highly contested sale of Crane Bank which belonged to businessman Sudhir Ruparelia.
Bagyenda who was laid off at the beginning of this year and replaced by Tumubweine Twinemanzi is due to face Parliament’s Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) to answer her role in closure of the these banks.
The summons stemmed from a confession made by a top BoU official, Benedict Sekabira, the Director, and Financial Markets Development Coordination that Bagyenda his boss then hid the vital reports required by the committee.
Sekabira made the confession having been pressed hard by the MPs who had earlier forced him to testify on oath.
Violating a sworn testimony attracts a penalty.
Sekabira whose name also surfaces in the closure of these banks said he handed some of the documents concerning the sale of banks to Bagyenda.
Earlier, the Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile had plainly indicated to COSASE that he has no idea where the documents are.
He then pressed Sekabira to answer since he was in charge.
Bagyenda is expected to appear before the committee on Wednesday.