The former Bank of Uganda Director for Supervision, Justine Bagyenda has told the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that the three bags that her driver and bodyguard took out of the Central Bank’s premises without security checks only contained her photos and MBA documents.
Bagyenda had a hard time explaining to the Katuntu-led committee why her aides broke security protocols in taking out three bags of classified information but later only returned two at the time when she was on the spotlight for maintaining several accounts in different commercial banks worth billions of shillings.
Although she admitted that bags containing information were stealthily sneaked out of Bank of Uganda premises by her aides, Bagyenda said she could not remember what the bags contained.
Abdul Katuntu: Is it true that bags and a box were carried out of your office without going through checkpoints?
Bagyenda: Yes
Katuntu: Did they contain documents?
Bagyenda: I don’t remember that. The bags had my photos and documents since I was doing MBA.
Bagyenda also failed to explain how Shs900m was paid to MMAKS Advocates, a law firm that reportedly offered legal consultancy on the sale of Crane Bank yet she personally wrote the letter to the Governor, Tumusiime Mutebile asking him to approve the payment of the money.
According to the Committee, there was no need for BoU to pay an external law firm the hefty sums when there was already another law firm that was offering legal counsel to the Central Bank.
Matters worsened when the BoU internal lawyer, Margaret Kasule told the Committee that she was never consulted before MMAKS Advocates was contracted to take over her duties even before terms of reference were clearly spelt out.
“I find it strange that Bank of Uganda has a fully fledged legal department but it decides to ask other law firms to draft the terms of reference for the Bank,” COSASE Chairman, Abdu Katuntu noted.