Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon Rebecca Aritwara Kadaga is irked by provision of laws which don’t give the legislature powers to prosecute individuals found liable by the committees of Parliament.
Sadly, after conducting investigations a parliamentary committee tenders in its report to the Speaker who then forwards it to the relevant authorities.
That is exactly what happened when an investigative committee of Parliament, COSASE, probed the sale of seven private commercial banks by the Central Bank and the findings indicated that officials at the Central Bank connived to close or sell off these financial institutions.
Chaired by the Bugweri MP, Hon. Abdu Katuntu, COSASE which spent months investigating and using tax payer’s money wrote a report with recommendations which until today have never been implemented.
On Thursday while speaking to TrumpetNews during a a social media chat about performance of the 3rd session of 10th Parliament, Speaker Kadaga expressed dismay as to why the laws can’t favour the legislature to take action on officials found culpable.
Commenting on the current Bank of Uganda currency scandal that has rattled the nation, Kadaga expressly said had the recommendations of COSASE been taken into account, may be this scandal couldn’t have happened.
In her wisdom, may be those perpetrating the scandals could have been wiped out by now.
“I have told the Ministry of Finance that they have one month to respond on the Treasury Memorandum in regards to issues of Bank of Uganda and other reports on the finance system,” Kadaga said.
With the ongoing scandals at BoU, the public has gradually lost confidence in the regulatory body that it has audacity to foster price and macro-economic stability.
In a twitter poll commissioned by TrumpetNews, 75% of Ugandans indicated that they no longer trust Bank of Uganda while 25 voted in favour of the bank.
A few months after COSASE exposed BoU as having sold off the 7 banks illegally, a currency scandal broke out in which it is alleged that officials at the Central Bank printed extra money.
The speculation comes after investigators established that in April a chartered plane currying printed money authorized by Bank of Uganda carried extra five pallets of cargo.
What was in the cargo remains unknown.
But Police spokesperson Fred Enanga on Monday said investigators had landed on substantial evidence linked to printing of unauthorized but genuine money.
The scandal has sucked in members of the public who want the entire BoU administration dissolved.