Oulanyah defends self over BoU audit

Kampala. Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah has defended himself regarding his role in the stalled proposal for Parliament to set up a select committee to investigate the operations of Bank of Uganda (BoU).

Mr Oulanyah came under criticism after the Budadiri West MP, Mr Nandala Mafabi, accused him of frustrating the motion by demanding a select committee to investigate whether BoU followed the Financial Institutions Act (FIA) during the process to close banks.
Mr Mafabi tabled his motion in July last year but it still remains listed on the Order Paper.

The move to audit BoU hit a snag when Mr Oulanyah said he had a letter from the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) saying it was carrying out an audit of BoU.

Mr Oulanyah also said he had letters from lawyers and the BoU Governor, Mr Tumusiime-Mutebile, that there are cases before the High Court – all related to the collapse of Crane Bank and whether the Central Bank either reneged on its supervisory role in the process or was part of a collusion syndicate.

Mr Oulanyah told Parliament yesterday that the motion to investigate BoU was only deferred because of concerns that proceedings of the committee would offend the sub judice rule.

“The motion was presented and debate started. The main thing came from a letter from lawyers that there are five cases filed in court on the same facts as contained in the motion and they raised the issue of sub judice under our rule 72. We could not continue debating the matter because they could prejudice the proceedings in court,” he said.

Mr Oulanyah also insisted he was not over ruled by the Speaker, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, who wrote to the Auditor General rescinding his [Oulanyah] ruling on BoU audits.

“My ruling was captured by the Speaker but the headlines continue to say the Speaker overruled the Deputy Speaker. That is misleading,” Mr Oulanyah said.

Background

BoU protests. Mr Oulanyah’s ruling formed the basis for the BoU Deputy Governor, Mr Loius Kasekende, who protested to the Solicitor General about demands by Cosase to audit the liquidation process of Crane Bank and other banks that BoU has closed since 1993. Mr Kasekende argued that any investigation into the closure of Crane Bank and National Bank of Commerce would offend the law on sub judice because there are pending cases in court.

Speaker Kadaga, however directed BoU to cooperate with the inquiry on its closure of banks.
Report: An audit report by the Auditor General will guide Parliament to carry out follow-up investigations into the BoU operations.

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