Unscrupulous officials at the Central Bank are conspiring with DFCU top management to generate nonexistent minutes of Crane Bank sale.
Generating these minutes will see DFCU investors- Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) conclude its sale of stake of 9.97% to Danish Investment Fund for Development Countries.
CDC announced in the recent past that it was selling off its shares and was ceasing to associate with DFCU. Whereas CDC remained tightlipped, it emerged the investors were infuriated by the illegal purchase of Crane Bank, a transaction that has since catapulted into multiple problems for the bank.
CDC was asked to provide support documents of the dealing DFCU undertook including taking over Crane Bank but in vain.
DFCU investors (CDC), the top managers and the lawyers behind the unscrupulous transaction are all stuck.
A few days ago, we reported how the current DFCU managing director Mathias Katamba had sought a meeting with his predecessor Juma Kisaame, BoU legal director Margret Kasule and the MMAKS lawyers who are the initiators of the dubious Crane Bank deal.
Katamba asked them to sort their mess as DFCU is likely to pay a huge price if the mess isn’t cleared.
Ms Kasule who was on leave then had pledged to begin fresh paperwork to legitimize Crane Bank sale.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that while conducting a forensic audit on Crane Bank closure, in his 58 page report detailing the findings, the Auditor General (AG) John Muwanga clearly stipulated that he was never provided with minutes of Crane- DFCU Sale.
Bank of Uganda officials led by Justine Bagyenda and Louis Kasekende (then) simply invited DFCU to take over Crane Bank.
Crane Bank belonged to city businessman Sudhir Ruparelia. It was sold on grounds of insolvency, a claim that Sudhir has since contested in Court and has so far won round one of the court battle.
Similarly, as MP from COSASE carried out their investigations, they found out that BoU couldn’t provide the files linked to Crane Bank closure.
Some of the documents that caused the MPs to chase away Dfcu bank officials led by Chairman Juma Mugerwa and new MD Mathias Katamba included one on “Fair valued loans and advances of customers of Crane Bank Limited (CBL). The other included schedules of CBL loans and advances.
However, matters were made worse when former Chief Executive Officer of Dfcu, Juma Kisaame confirmed to MPs on the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises that the invite for DFCU to come and buy Crane bank was done on phone.
