KPMG, an international firm that was hired to audit the defunct Crane Bank books between January 1, 2016 and January 25, 2017, has failed to submit the report, two years later.
Bank of Uganda (Bou) hired KPMG at a cost of Shs921.7m to provide a variety of IT support services related to the Tememos T24 software, apparently because: “the BoU team did not have a competent and experienced resource with requisite expertise regarding CBL’s core banking system (T24).”
The report is important and could point to who exactly took over Shs270b, that the Auditor General (AG) has failed to trace, out of the Shs478 billion that BoU injected into Crane Bank as liquidity support.
In a February 8, 2019 confidential audit report to the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, AG John Muwanga revealed that Shs272.6 billion of the Shs478 billion that was meant for Crane Bank liquidity support, could not be traced anywhere.
AG found that BoU officials approved and remitted $53.16 million (more than Shs195 billion) to Crane Bank by Telegraphic Transfers (TTs).
The money was allegedly requested by undisclosed Crane Bank customers and was later released through the bank’s Nostro Account 3582025085001 after BoU officials sent instructions to Citi Bank in New York.
“I traced the accounts in the CBL in the TT requests to CBL Nostro account statement and confirmed that the amounts in the requests tallied with the transfers from the Nostro Account. However, I was not able to confirm the final recipients of the respective transfers from the CBL Nostro account as the account didn’t indicate the beneficiary account names, account numbers and beneficiary bank,” the AG report states in part.
The AG also revealed that an additional Shs77.5 billion that BoU officials claim they transferred to 46 Crane Bank branches across the country cannot be detected.
“Crane Bank annual accounts for the period starting January 1, 2016 to January 25, 2017 also could not be traced.”
BoU Deputy Governor Louis, Kasekende’s response to the AG’s queries was that Crane Bank upgraded the banking software from the Bank Master Core system to T24 system, bringing out the “mismatch” in information and that linking the two systems by DFCUBank has been a tedious process that requires more time to harmonise.