Famous audit firm KMPG is on the spot for failing to issue a report on Crane Bank despite receiving close to a billion shillings as payment from the Central Bank to provide IT support related to Tememos T24 software.
Bank of Uganda (BoU) contracted the audit firm because the former lacked necessary expertise conversant with Crane Bank’s core banking system.
KPMG were paid shs 921 million by the regulator.
A report that has now taken 2 years, could be the only hope to reveal who could have taken over shs 270 billion which BoU invested in the institution but has not been traced by the Auditor General.
The Central Bank placed Crane Bank on grounds of gross insolvency in October 2016 and subsequently sold it off to DFCU in January 2017.
A year after, Mr John Muwanga, the auditor General reported to the Speaker of Parliament that he had failed to trace shs 272 billion as part of the 478 billion which BoU claims to have injected into the bank for liquidity support.
Mr. Muwanga found that BoU officials approved and remitted $53.16 million (more than Shs195 billion) to Crane Bank by Telegraphic Transfers (TTs).
The money was allegedly requested by undisclosed Crane Bank customers and was later released through the bank’s Nostro Account 3582025085001 after BoU officials sent instructions to Citi Bank in New York.
“I traced the accounts in the CBL in the TT requests to CBL Nostro account statement and confirmed that the amounts in the requests tallied with the transfers from the Nostro Account. However, I was not able to confirm the final recipients of the respective transfers from the CBL Nostro account as the account didn’t indicate the beneficiary account names, account numbers and beneficiary bank,” the AG report states in part.
Mr. Muwanga also disclosed that an additional Shs77.5 billion that BoU officials claim they transferred to 46 Crane Bank branches across the country cannot be detected.
“Crane Bank annual accounts for the period starting January 1, 2016 to January 25, 2017 also could not be traced.”