Key questions the Bank of Uganda currency saga raises

President Museveni has in the past few weeks been traversing the country on a wealth creation tour. The campaign was designed to sensitise people on improving household income.
But in Kampala, it seems some urban dwellers are not convinced by the ruling NRM party’s wealth creation vision. News unfolding is that some individuals could have hatched up a plan and made off with Shs90 billion delivered by a Bank of Uganda (BoU) chartered plane in April.
According to a statement from BoU governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, after the bank’s officials received the currency consignment, they reported an anomaly in the inventory of the expected consignment during the verification process.

“Therefore, I requested the Anti-Corruption Unit of State House to investigate the matter. The unit has started investigations and BoU is fully co-operating with the process,” he said.
Indeed a few days earlier, the State House Anti-corruption Unit in a joint operation with police had arrested several officials from BoU, customs department, airport police and the Civil Aviation Authority.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga came out to say there were ongoing investigations into alleged printing of unauthorised extra currency by some BoU officials. This was supported by recovery of crucial documents during a joint security search at the suspects’ homes.

But the next day government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo accused the police of being dishonest. According to Opondo, “government is only aware about investigation of extra consignment including solar machines, batteries, among others which were shipped into the country, but we are not aware about extra money which was printed.”
The public is in shock and has been left in complete confusion by the latest developments. And the level of anxiety has only been escalated by the conflicting positions of government and the police.
In line with international procedure, when large amounts of cash go missing, an alarm is promptly raised, the public is informed, advised to be vigilant and the serial numbers of the missing notes are shared. However, this seems not to be the case.

As Ugandans continue to wonder what version of the story to believe, critical questions emerge such as;
1) Why is it that the information being given to the public by different government arms seems to be conflicting with each other? There is suspicion that maybe it is being intentionally done so that the truth reminds hidden from the public.

2) The assumption is that BoU may have authorised Oberthur Fiduciare, a French money printing company, and therefore, the final and last signatory authorising a specific amount would have been that of BoU governor. So at what stage exactly was the process compromised?
3) If the assumptions are true then, Oberthur Fiduciare, an international company with an image to protect, is likely to comply with strict international regulations and security protocol, including tracing bank note serial numbers and tracking the cash in transit. Therefore, upon request from BoU the location of bank notes can be located quickly.

4) So, was extra money printed or not? If yes, why the elaborate plan to cover up the Shs90b?
In Uganda where everything is possible, nothing is ever straight forward and clear. But as always, time will unmask the truth of who is behind the BoU currency saga and what their motive is.

Ms Victoria Nyeko is a media commentator.
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Twitter:@VictoriaNyeko