BoU breaks silence on money loss
Bank of Uganda headquarters in Kampala. PHOTO/ FILE
What you need to know:
- When the BoU officials learnt of the mess in September, they reportedly took the matter to police and apprehended a staff who had been in Nairobi during that period.
The Bank of Uganda has said it is banking on a joint multi-agency investigation to “comprehensively clarify’’ how billions of shillings were initiated and processed through the Central Bank before providing the public with a detailed update.
“The Bank of Uganda (BoU) is aware of recent media reports regarding two incidents involving fraudulent activity that resulted in international payments being diverted from their intended beneficiaries.
“The BoU takes these matters with the utmost seriousness. We immediately launched a comprehensive internal investigation to: Fully understand the complete extent of these incidents; Conduct a thorough process review; Identify and implement steps to prevent similar occurrences in the future,” the bank says in the statement signed by Mr Kenneth Egesa, the director, Communications and Public Relations, published on Page 9 of Monday's Daily Monitor newspaper.
The BoU had on Tuesday last week told Monitor that it was “waiting” for a police probe report on the incident and that they would also issue a statement on the incident.
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The latest statement now shines light on the subject, which had, until Monitor brought the story to the limelight on Wednesday last week, remained under wraps.
“We are actively cooperating with relevant authorities, including the Criminal Investigations Directorate of the Uganda Police Force, the Financial Intelligence Authority, and the Office of the Auditor General, to assist in their investigations.
“We anticipate that the investigative findings will comprehensively clarify the details of how these payments were initiated and processed through the BoU. Once the investigation is complete, we will provide a detailed public update. Our commitment remains unwavering: to maintain the highest standards of institutional integrity and transparency. The BoU remains steadfast in safeguarding its systems and upholding public confidence,” the statement states.
England probe
On Friday, we reported that the police’s Directorate of Interpol and International Relations had written to its counterpart agencies in Manchester, England, and in Tokyo, Japan, to assist in establishing the identities of individuals [and companies] behind the $13m (about Shs47.9b) heist.
It was reported that the Japanese bank through which the transfer was made rejected BoU’s request to freeze the transfer made in August pending the findings of the ongoing probe. Sources indicated that the Tokyo-based partners of the syndicate in Kampala had presented “solid and sufficient” paperwork to prove that they undertook the said activities against which BoU effected payment of $6m (approximately Shs22b).
Only the bank in England had effected BoU’s request to freeze the $7m (approximately Shs25.8b). It is suspected that the perpetrators of the scheme had, however, withdrawn around Shs400m.
It is reported that by Thursday, a total of 17 officials from BoU and the Ministry of Finance had been interrogated by sleuths from CID and the army’s Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS), formerly Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).
According to investigations, the “insiders’’ created fictitious expenditures and the money was sent to Bank of Uganda through an asymmetric file on a secure channel, which had two keys; one was a public one known to the sender and recipient, and the other was known only to the recipient.
“They then used an intermediary bank to effect the international wire transfer which occurred between two banks and different countries,” the sources added.
It is at this point that someone using a private key decrypted the file and created new keys for the file and compromised the system. Part of the money ($6m) was sent to an account domiciled in Japan, and the other batch ($7m) was sent to an account in England.
When the BoU officials learnt of the mess in September, they reportedly took the matter to police and apprehended a staff who had been in Nairobi during that period. The staff member’s laptop was seized and handed over to a top audit firm. It emerged last evening that detectives were imaging the laptop to download log-in accounts to enable them establish whose credentials were used in the heist.
