FIA bosses in panic over possible probe after freezing various bank accounts

By George Mangula

Top gurus at Uganda’s Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) are engulfed by the fear of losing their jobs after they allegedly blocked billions of shillings belonging to a new pharmaceutical firm-DeiPharma- that is the processes of setting up a plant to make medicines.

The FIA, headed by Sydney Asubo (in photo above) as executive director, is among others mandated to monitor, investigate, and prevent money laundering in Uganda, having been established in 2014.

During his State of the Nation Address (SONA) President Yoweri Museveni castigated the FIA top executives for blocking that wired to DeiPharma’s accounts so that it carry out some operations.

Museveni said DeiPharma, a brainchild of Dr. Hassan Kyakulaga and others is supported by some African Banks such as Equity Bank of Kenya and that it will make the medicines the country needs and even export but that the owners have been frustrated by FIA. “Incredibly, three days ago, a group answering to the description of the so called Financial Intelligence Authority had closed 13 their Bank accounts claiming that they did not know where their money was coming from and what it was doing.

Yesterday, I visited one of their huge factories in Matugga, near my camp no. 3, near Buwambo, in that area during our bush war. Why couldn’t Financial Intelligence check what these people were doing on the ground? How could they fail to know that the money was coming from Equity and other Banks? I am going to get to the bottom of these treacheries by all these elements that have been fighting our Revolution.”

Museveni warned that he would act against FIA officials for frustrating DeiPharma, the president quoting Galacians 6:7-9, which says that what you sow is what you reap…” the Bible says that whatever you sow, that is what you harvest. “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh he will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the spirit, from the spirit will reap eternal life,” said Museveni.

A source within the agency (FIA) told this website in a telephone interview that top bosses there are now pleading with Finance Minister Matia Kasaija to save their jobs. “FIA is supervised by the Ministry of Finance and I assure you our bosses are pleading with Minister Kasaija to save their jobs,” he said on condition of anonymity.

He added that FIA has been receiving complaints from individuals, non- governmental organisations and companies for unfairly blocking transactions on their bank accounts. “We have received many complaints and they continue to come in,” he said, adding that FIA bosses now fear they could be probed for unfairly blocking private bank accounts that hold hundreds of billions of shillings.