ISO And IGG Start Fresh Investigations on Former Top Bank Of Uganda Officials; Kasekende, Bagyenda And Others.

Embattled former Executive Director in charge of Supervision at Bank of Uganda Justine Bagyenda.

Internal Security Organisation and Inspectorate of Government have commenced fresh investigation on top Bank of Uganda officials.

According to sources, former Deputy Governor, Louis Kasekende, former Executive Director Supervision, Justine Bagyenda, Director Legal, Margaret Kasule and  Benedict Ssekabira, the director of Financial Markets Development Coordination (FMDC) are the top officials lined up for probing.

According to sources, ISO has been drawn in because previous investigations by the office of IGG have never been made public and as such, there is a likelihood that they are compromised.

“The appointment authority is unhappy with IGG delay on findings of the investigation on the top leaders at BoU. And therefore, he has instructed ISO to join the fresh investigation so as to have a genuine report” said a source.

State House Anti-Corruption Unit headed by Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema is also investigating top officials in relation to the payments they recently paid to city lawyers Timothy Kanyerezi Masembe and David Mpanga of Bowmans.

According to sources, the appointing authority is reportedly unhappy with the revelation that Bank of Uganda made losses to a tune of Shs2 trillion and yet top officials at the bank are swimming in wealth.

 It was previously reaveled that, Two directors at Bank of Uganda were under investigations by State House Anti-Corruption Unit for allegedly paying Shs6 billion to two city lawyers.

The two directors are Benedict Ssekabira, of Financial Markets Development Coordination (FMDC) and Margaret Kasule, director legal services.

According to sources, the two directors are alleged to have sanctioned the payment of Shs6 billion to Masembe Kanyerezi and Mpanga. Sources further allege that although this money was released as legal fees, however, its intended purposes is to cover all the legal loopholes in the case of Crane Bank Limited takeover and subsequent during receivership.

The two lawyers represented BoU and the payment for their services has been ongoing until parliament probing committee, Committee on Commissions, State Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that investigated BoU over the controversial sale of seven commercial banks between 1993 and October 20, 2016.

In December 2017, the Commercial Court disqualified city lawyers Mr Kanyererezi Masembe and Mr. David Mpanga from the Sh397 billion Sudhir Ruparelia’s case against Bank of Uganda (BoU), also citing conflict of interest.

In his ruling delivered on December 21, 2017, the head of the commercial court division, Justice Wangutusi stated that Mr. David Mpanga of A.F. Mpanga Advocates and Timothy Masembe of MMAKS Advocates acted in violation of the Advocates (Professional Conduct) regulations.

Last month, it was alleged that BoU released Shs4 billion as part of the balance on Shs20 billion to the same lawyers. However, what is intriguing investigators is why paying that entire amount to the lawyers and yet some of the cases are jointly handled by BoU own lawyers.

Sources say that the payment could be part of the ploy to falsify accountability in the case of Shs478 billion.

Also what is of interests to investigators are revelation that these have ill accumulated wealth which cannot resonate with their salaries.