Cosase kicks out BoU officials again over failure to present crucial documents of defunct banks

By Our Reporter

The Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) led by the Chairperson Abdu Katuntu, has for the second time kicked out Bank of Uganda (BoU) Governor,  Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile and his juniors for failure to bring all documents related to the liquidation and sale of seven commercial banks.

On November 2, 2018, Cosase kicked Tumusiime-Mutebile and his staff for failure to bring all the required documents but the MPs on the committee were surprised again on Monday that the bank officials did not again come with all the documents, more so those relating to Teefe Trust Bank.

MP Katuntu has tasked the Executive Director for Supervision Dr. Tumubweine Twinomanzi to present the required documents by 1PM on Wednesday and ordered that the BoU team appears again on Thursday at 10AM.

The documents must have a cover letter, addressed to chairperson, Cosase.  “Make sure chairperson receives them in person,” Katuntu told Twinomanzi.

Statement of accountants presented makes no sense. It is so anonymous. Documents should answer the queries of the committee as raised by the auditor general,” Katuntu said, who overruled his members on asking specific questions, reasoning that all documents have to be available before the MPs can raise such queries.

Katuntu also has asked that BoU staff appear together with their agents who were involved in the transactions to answer specific queries.

The Auditor General, John Muwanga, in his special audit report of BoU on defunct banks mentions that BoU did not avail him with all documents and as such he could not make an assessment of some the transactions as required.

The defunct banks of interest are;  Teefe Bank (1993), International Credit Bank Limited (1998), Greenland Bank (1999), Cooperative Bank (1999), National Bank of Commerce (2012), Global Trust Bank (2014) and sale of Crane Bank to dfcu in 2017.

Meanwhile, Mutebile while addressing the committee members had cautioned that, resolution of banks is a complex exercise and each bank has had its own circumstances under which it was resolved.

“There are also a number of challenges involved including court cases, I want to appeal to this committee to be mindful of the ongoing court cases as they might have an effect on how much information we shall reveal during this probe,” he said.

Mutebile said they carried out bank resolutions before Bank of Uganda identified other banks that purchased assets of the defunct competitors.

He said the seven defunct banks in the Attorney General’s report were put under resolution because they were insolvent.

Meanwhile, deputy governor Louis Kasekende told the committee that BoU has availed financial information of Teefe Bank .He said there was communication between BoU and Ministry of Finance as regards Teefe bank which he said was insolvent.