Three Bank of Uganda officials have been re-arrested in connection with the currency scandal.
The officials are being held in connection to what State House’s Anti-Corruption Unit Col. Edith Nakalema termed as “investigation on a matter pertaining the bank’s procurement and supply chain activities” when her unit stormed BoU and held several officials last week.
The saga shocked the public last Friday after news broke that a plane chartered by BoU to carry freshly printed currency notes had landed at Entebbe airport with 25 palettes instead of the 20 that were expected.
Following the news, rumour was rife that BoU officials had printed an extra Shs90 billion genuine but unathourised currency for their own benefit. This led to conflicting statements between different agencies with police pointing at investigating the printing of excess cash while Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo sanitized the scandal saying that the five palettes carried goods of businessmen like MTN’s Charles Mbire, Omar Mandela and UN agencies.
Now news reaching Matooke Republic’s desk indicates that Police has expanded their investigations to upcountry currency centres.
URN reported earlier today, that a senior police detective from Police’s Criminal Investigations Department intimated to them that after investigating top BoU officials, the investigating team led by CID Director Grace Akullo found leads in three currency centres.
The heads of three currency units in Mbale, Kabale and Fort Portal are being interrogated on whether they had prior knowledge on the five extra palettes that were transported on the BoU chartered plane.
As investigations into the saga continue, BoU’s image has been tainted in the eyes of the general public because this is not the first scandal, they are embroiled in. A February report following a probe by Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises pointed at corruption within BoU in connection with the closure and takeover of seven commercial banks in the recent past.