Mutebile tight-lipped on BOU procurement scam

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Bank of Uganda Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile has refused to reveal the amount of money the institution was carrying into the country when extra pellets were discovered on a chartered plane.

He also said he was not aware of the police investigations into claims of extra currency printed as claimed by the police’s spokesperson Fred Enanga.

Mutebile, who was reading the monetary policy statement for the month of June at BOU offices in Kampala on Tuesday, said the only investigation he knows is that of extra pallets on the plane, not the one of printing extra currency.

Mutebile added: “It was an anomaly in the sense that the plane came with 20 pallets which we had put in the plane. But there were other five pallets, which we didn’t put. That is all. What I ask State House anti-corruption unit to do is ask what was in the extra cargo.”

Mary Katarikawe, the BOU head of operations says that BOU would only wait for the report from the State House Anti-Corruption Unit. She said the investigations would have to include reports from the company contracted to print and transport the money.

Mutebile confirms press reports that there were 20 pallets belonging to the central bank, which were received intact. He said their interest is on the other five.

The flight was chartered from Paris to Entebbe. An official at BOU told URN independently that the central bank dealt with Oberthur Fiduciare a French company to print the money and not Kuehne and Nagel, the plane company.

Kuehne and Nagel is headquartered in Switzerland.  The BOU contract requires the printer to charter a plane to bring money to Uganda, according to the source.

The plane was supposed to carry only BOU cargo.

On the monetary policy, the economic conditions remained mainly the same as they were in April with risks to the economy being global trade tensions and unpredictable weather conditions that could affect production in agriculture.

The governor maintained the Central Bank Rate, which indicates direction of interest rates in market, at 10% for a fourth time in row.

The current BOU decision means it is holding on to see how risks to the economy pan out in the next two months. It does not expect any significant change on the front of borrowing and economic activity.

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URN