MPs want Scotland Yard to probe BoU currency saga

Parliament. Members of Parliament are drumming up support for British investigator, the Scotland Yard, to take over investigation into the currency saga at the Bank of Uganda (BoU).
Championed by Dokolo Woman MP Cecilia Ogwal, the move has been fronted as an alternative to government investigation arms, which have been described as too weak to be trusted.
Ms Ogwal argued during a House sitting yesterday that the trust is further broken by the conflicting information coming from government agencies.

“I think the concern of Parliament at this moment is who is investigating who; we are concerned because we are getting contradictions from the police and other agencies where we should have got confidence that the government is in control and they are doing something,” Ms Ogwal said.

She added: “As of now, I would want this Parliament to take a step further, we may have to call upon Scotland Yard.”
The legislator argued that had Parliament acted early on the report of the House Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises to cause an overhaul at the central bank, the present scandal would have been avoided.
Early last week, the State House Anti-corruption Unit and police arrested several BoU officials, from the Customs Department, airport police officers and Civil Aviation Authority staff after the central bank governor, Mr Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, wrote to State House to investigate an incident where a chartered UK airline carrying Uganda currency also carried extra private cargo, which triggered suspicion of printed illegal currency.

The chartered UK-based KUEHNE +NAGEL cargo plane delivered the consignment of Uganda currency at Entebbe airport on April 27.

In the midst of debate yesterday, Mr David Bahati, the Minister of State for Planning, informed Parliament that there was no extra currency printed, but declined to divulge further information on grounds that the matter was still under investigation through a joint effort of the country’s investigations arms led by the police.
“It is true that there is an issue to do with an air cargo which was carrying our currency to Uganda and it was found with extra items on the plane,” he said.

Mr Bahati pleaded with Parliament to grant government chance to investigate the matter and report back by Tuesday with a tentative report.
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga agreed with the Tuesday timeline, short of which, she said, Parliament would proceed to invite the Scotland Yard to probe the matter.
The MPs are concerned that government investigations never yield into substantive findings, which leaves the public guessing in the quest for justice.

Background
Scotland Yard probes. The Scotland Yard has made several investigations relating to high profile cases in Uganda, including the killing of Andrew Lutakome Kayiira, and most recently, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, but the reports have never been made public.

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