Kadaga rejects ISO probe, hits out at IGG

What you need to know:

  • Response. She says Parliament will investigate IGG’s letter to ISO.

Parliament. The fallout over the inquiry into irregularities in the closure of seven banks yesterday took a new twist after the Speaker, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, angrily rejected a directive by the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Ms Irene Mulyagonja, asking the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) to investigate allegations of bribe-taking by Members of Parliament (MPs) that conducted the investigation.
In her communication from the chair, Ms Kadaga disparaged the Ombudsman’s February 19 letter to the ISO director general, Col Kaka Bagyenda, asking him to investigate MPs on Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), led by Mr Abdu Katuntu, and amounts to “abuse of office and process”.
In her letter, Ms Mulyagonja had noted that ISO was “in a better position” to inquire into a complaint by a whistle-blower submitted to the two offices about alleged misconduct by Cosase members.
In rejecting the IGG’s orders to ISO, Ms Kadaga poked holes in the IGG’s letter and defended the committee from the allegations. Ms Kadaga derided the information to IGG as false and explained that the Katuntu Committee neither carried out any benchmarking as alleged in the whistle-blower’s complaint and nor did Cosase members receive payments from the former Crane Bank proprietor Dr Sudhir Ruparelia as claimed by the informer.
“This letter and its context is an attack on the immunity and affront on the dignity of this Parliament and I condemn it in the strongest terms possible. I will not allow anyone to blackmail Parliament. The IGG is an officer of this House, she reports to this House but she just casually directs ISO to investigate us, “a furious Kadaga told MPs.
The Speaker ruled that Ms Mulyagonja’s letter will be investigated by Parliament’s Committee on Rules and Privileges to determine the next course of action.
Ms Kadaga said according to her interpretation of the letter, the IGG, in effect, also accuses her of being involved in the money that allegedly exchanged hands between bankers, top central bank officials and MPs on Cosase during inquiries into closure of seven commercial banks.

Allegations
Ms Kadaga was particularly incensed by an allegation that Mr Suparelia paid the former Committee chairman Abdu Katuntu and vice-chairperson Anita Among, to continue with the investigation into the closure of banks even after their tenure had expired.
“I take strong exception to paragraph 2 [of the letter] where the IGG alleges that Katuntu and Among received cash payments from Dr Ruparelia. It is this House which gave them the opportunity to complete their work,” Ms Kadaga retorted.
The Speaker also dismissed allegations by the whistle-blower, as referenced in the IGG’s letter, alleging that a senior BoU official had authorised the transfer of Shs400m to Cosase members to travel abroad ostensibly to benchmark best practices in management of central banks.
“Benchmarking is with my authorisation. Therefore, I am also being accused of authorising some benchmarking. They did not apply, I did not approve and they did not go. You are going to see ISO coming here to check the Speaker’s letters?” she said.
Some of the MPs who spoke on the matter backed the Speaker and hit back that the IGG was using sneaky tactics to “derail” and “divert” the processes of Parliament.
Ajuri County MP Hamson Obua said Parliament has a constitutional mandate to do oversight and supported the directive to have her letter investigated by the Rules Committee.
“What is the motive of that letter? Is it meant to derail a Parliament process? This Parliament has a constitutional mandate to legislate, represent, do oversight and appropriate. Where we are doing our part, we should be allowed to do our part,” Mr Obua said.
It was not readily established when the Rules Committee will begin its inquiries into Ms Mulyagonja’s letter.
In a separate interview, Mr Katuntu said he will not accept to be “bullied” and described the accusations as unfounded and “a diversionary tactic” by people who seek to derail the adoption of the Cosase report by Parliament.
IGG speaks out
Ms Mulyagonja last evening said she will “wait for the process to unfold” before she can definitively comment on protests by the Speaker and MPs that she was attempting to obstruct legitimate Parliamentary inquiries.
“I will wait to hear from the Speaker. I believe there will be official communication for me to appear [before the Rules Committee]. I have no comment. I will just wait for the process to unfold,” Ms Mulyagonja said.