How the Bank of Uganda (BoU) spent over Shs478bn in running defunct Crane Bank after taking it over continues to puzzle Ugandans and MPs inclusive.
To know exactly how the money was spent, MPs on the Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) on Monday asked the Auditor General to conduct a forensic audit on how BoU spent Shs478bn that was injected into Crane Bank as liquidity support by the Central Bank.
COSASE has lately been probing BoU officials over the controversial closure of seven defunct banks.
Interfacing with BoU officials today, COSASE Chairperson, Abdu Katuntu asked the Auditor General to carry out a forensic audit on the money injected in Crane Bank by the government since BoU report did not show how the money was spent.
“This report doesn’t answer question on how money was utilized. What this Committee is interested in is how the accountability was made. We shall not have a useful meeting until we resolve this issue. It would be time wasting both Bank of Uganda and the Committee,” Katuntu said.
It is worth noting that when the Committee asked BoU officials on whether the Office of the Auditor General had looked into how the Shs478.8bn injected into Crane Bank was spent, the Central Bank said the expenditure had been audited by the Auditor General. However, the Committee found out that BoU lied.
Katuntu gave a list of documents he wants the team from Bank of Uganda to handover to the auditors including loan listings as at 20th October 2016, Loan harmonisation schedule as at 20th October 2016 and loan harmonization schedule as at 27th January 2017. This includes interest and principal recoveries and the loan classification schedules.
Bank of Uganda was also ordered to hand over the soft copy of the inventory report on Crane Bank, handover report of the Director Commercial Banking and Statement of Shs12bn liquidation cost ( all the entire liquidation cost not liquidity support.”
BoU took over Crane Bank on 20th October 2016. After takeover, the Central Bank injected taxpayers’ money to a tune of 478bn for the purpose of liquidity support and other intervention activities.
COSASE will soon start interfacing with owners of closed banks.
