IGG appoints 200 to probe BoU staff

Kampala. The Inspector General of Government, Irene Mulyagonja has appointed a team of 200 officers to probe into the wealth of 100 Bank of Uganda officials. Sources within the inspectorate say each bank official has been attached two officers to verify their incomes, assets and liabilities.
The IGG probe into top BoU officials coincides with the Com­mit­tee on Com­mis­sions, Statu­tory Au­thor­i­ties and State En­tre­prises (COSASE)investigations into the irregularities in the closure of seven commercial banks.
An October 18 letter addressed to one of the top officials of Bank of Uganda signed by Annet Twine reads in part: “This is to notify you of the decision by Inspectorate of Government to conduct a verification of your income, assets and liabilities as provided under section 4C of the Leadership Code Act.”
“The verification exercise will commence within seven days from the date of this letter. Mr Victor Acidri, a senior principal inspectorate officer and Ms Doreen Tusiime, and inspectorate officer have been authorised to conduct the verification exercise and obtain information in respect of this matter,” the letter states
Sources within the inspectorate say the assigned officers have already started work to verify the wealth of the 100 staff of the Bank, including Mr Emmanuel Tumusime Mutebile.
The IGG spokesperson, Ms Munira Ali, confirmed the onset of the verification exercise and said the bank officials are part of the 200 senior civil servants the body is verifying this year.
“Those are our staff deployed to verify assets of those people. We cannot verify assets of all the 25000 leaders flat once... That’s why we decided to focus on 200 and 100 from BoU is part of our target this financial year.”
“Every two years, we go back and verify their assets even for BoU we will still go back and verify. This exercise started in October and we have informed BoU officials and selected teams to handle that exercise,” Ms Munira said.
The Leadership Code Act states that “a person shall within three months after becoming a leader; and thereafter every two years, during the month of December; submit to the Inspector-General a written declaration of the leader’s income, assets and liabilities, the names, income, assets and liabilities of his or her spouse, child, and dependant in the prescribed form, without prejudice to the rights of the leader’s spouse, child and dependant to independently own property.
A leader who fails without reasonable cause to submit a declaration commits a breach of the leadership code and the act goes ahead to state that ‘‘a leader who, without reasonable cause, fails to comply with the Inspector-General’s request for clarification within thirty days after receipt of notice, commits a breach of this code and is liable to a warning, caution, dismissal or vacation of office and a leader who knowingly or recklessly submits a declaration or gives an account of any matter which is false, misleading or insufficient in any material particular, commits a breach of this code.
Recently, the IGG also verified the assets of KCCA executive director, Jennifer Musisi and that of Uganda National Roads Authority’s Allen Kagina, including several senior managers at the authority and the results are yet to be made public.
The bank officials are yet to comment on the verification exercise. Ms Charity Mugumya, the director of Communications at the Bank could not be reached for comments.