The Bank of Uganda Governor Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime- Mutebile has revealed that he wasn’t aware that the Central Bank had land titles belong to customers of Teffe Trust Bank, 25 years after the bank was closed.
Mutebile made the revelation on Friday while appearing before Parliamentary Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that is probing the circumstances under which the Central Bank controversially closed seven banks including Teffe.
This was after Kashari County MP, Nathan Itungo asked him to explain why Bank of Uganda had held onto 23 land titles belonging to customers of Teffe Bank without disposing them off.
“Why have you taken 25years with the land titles? What are you still doing with them? If you hadn’t been called to the Committee, what would you have done with these titles? Itungo said.
In response, Mutebile said: “I didn’t know that those titles existed.”
Teffe Trust Bank was closed in 1993, with Bank of Uganda justifying their decision on grounds that the Bank had become insolvent and efforts to have the shareholders recapitalise the Bank hit a dead end.
A recent special Audit report by the Auditor General, John Muwanga revealed that BoU controversially closed seven banks including Teffe Bank in 1993, International Credit Bank Ltd in 1998, Greenland Bank in 1999, The Co-operative Bank in 1999, National Bank of Commerce in 2012, Global Trust Bank in 2014 and Crane Bank Ltd in 2016.
