Missing BoU reports: CCTV footage pins Bagyenda

Kampala. A report by a Parliamentary sub-committee has concluded that Ms Justine Bagyenda, Bank of Uganda’s former Executive Director for Supervision, used her “status” to reject security checks at the central bank which she accessed and allegedly took away vital documents.
On Tuesday when the central bank’s Security Director, Mr Milton Opiyo, appeared before the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), which is investigating closure of seven banks, he said one day on a weekend Ms Bagyenda entered Bank of Uganda and took away documents critical to the inquiry.
The Cosase has been demanding BoU to produce the liquidation reports which contain the list of assets of the banks at closure to be able to ascertain their value at the time of liquidation.
Upon Opiyo’s revelation, Cosase appointed a four-member team led by Army MP Brig Francis Takirwa to review the CCTV footage at the central bank and report back.
Yesterday, Brig Takirwa, who led a four-member team that examined CCTV footage, told Cosase that Bagyenda breached security procedures and accessed BoU premises where she is suspected to have picked up the documents. “There was a rare security mishap that was caused by Ms Bagyenda on February 10 when she accessed BoU and took out three bags that contained unknown items and a box that contained documents. When we looked at the details of her entrance, she used her status to shun security checks because those items were not checked,” Brig Takirwa’s report reads. Brig Takirwa’s team also discovered that Ms Bagyenda had earlier breached BoU security measures on March 14 when she returned from an external trip, offloaded her luggage from a vehicle to an office before carrying two empty bags back [into] the vehicle and headed home.
The Takirwa team will continue cross-examining four BoU staff who were named by the central bank’s Security Director Opiyo regarding the missing documents and will present a comprehensive report today.
The four staff are Mr Job Turyahabwe (Ms Bagyenda’s driver who carried the bags), Ms Juliet Adikot (bodyguard who also carried the bags]; security guards Charles Omollo and Beatrice Kyambadde who were on duty on the day the documents were taken.
“The prayer from security at BoU to Parliament is that Ms Bagyenda should be held individually responsible for her actions,” the Brig Takirwa report concludes.
On Tuesday Ms Bagyenda was given a two-day ultimatum to either appear before the Committee today or arrest warrants by Interpol be issued against her.
She is the spotlight over the missing key documents such as progressive reports on the closure of three banks which have been a source of frustration for the Committee with BoU officials and former staff locked in a cycle of accusations and counter-accusations on who is in possession of the documents.