The Parliamentary Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) Chairperson, Abdu Katuntu (in featured photo) has revealed that his Committee will start investigations into queries raised in the special audit report about the closure of seven banks by the Bank of Uganda.
Addressing journalists Wednesday after a closed door meeting with Committee members, Katuntu said plans are underway for the Committee not only to probe BoU officials, but also hear from all board members of the seven closed banks.
Katuntu said the Wednesday meeting was a preparatory meeting intended to map out a work plan on how the Committee is going to handle issues raised in the Special Auditor General’s report.
“We have set up a work plan, we are beginning on Wednesday next week and we shall be able to interact with officers of Bank of Uganda and Board of Bank of Uganda to explain to us the issues that have been raised by the Auditor General,” Katuntu told journalists.
He added: “We have instructed clerk to look for the Boards of the defunct banks. The Boards are now defunct, so we are going to look for those who were last in those offices in those banks.”
The seven banks in question include Teefe Bank, International Credit Bank Limited, Greenland Bank, Co-operative Bank, National Bank of Commerce (NBC), Global Trust Bank and the most recent Crane Bank Limited.
It should be noted that on 28th November 2017, COSASE requested the Auditor General to undertake a special audit on the closure of all Commercial banks by the Central Bank.
After seven months, the special audit report came out, revealing how BoU controversially closed some of the banks.
For example, the special audit report revealed that during the statutory management period, the Central Bank splashed Shs478.8bn into Crane Bank as liquidity support between 21st October 2016 and 9th January 2017.
