In a shocking revelation, it has emerged that Bank of Uganda overthrew the Constitution and laws of the land and instead used United Kingdom law while selling three defunct banks.
BoU officials made the revelation on Wednesday while appearing before the Committee of Commissions Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that is probing findings in the special audit report by the Auditor General that highlighted grievances in the way seven banks were closed.
This was after Busiro East MP, Medard Sseggona asked BoU team to explain why they overthrew laws of Uganda including the constitution and chose to rely on UK laws in an agreement they signed with Nile River Acquisition that bought off the loans of International Credit Bank, Greenland Bank and Cooperative Bank at USD5.2M.
In response, Margaret Kaggwa, Legal Counsel of Bank of Uganda told the Committee that it was Nile River Acquisition that asked to have the agreement executed based on UK laws, but these were only to apply in case of any disputes but not on debt collections.
This left MPs shocked, with COSASE Chairperson, Abdu Katuntu stating: “You had actually ousted the applicability of using the Uganda constitution. Why did you choose the law under which the agreement should be interpreted? We want you to explain the basis under which you took that decision.”
Francis Takirwa, UPDF representative also asked: “Was Bank of Uganda so desperate that they couldn’t wait for another arrangement rather than take that of this company that had to bring its laws?”
BoU officials struggled to answer the above questions.
