By Simon Turibamwe
Former Minister and Kampala Central MP, Capt. Francis Babu says the new COSASE report on BoU won’t easily find public legitimacy because he has credible information money exchanged hands and the defunct Crane Bank owners gratified some MPs to get back at the BoU officials who they felt had unfairly closed their bank. Speaking on NBS’ Frontline program, Babu said “we know many things about this matter including the fact that Crane Bank paid MPs money.” He said the fact that many banks had been closed by the same BoU in similar circumstances without MPs doing anything is indicative the latest probe was inspired by money exchanging hands to drag Parliament into the Crane Bank wars with BoU officials. Babu said that the manner in which committee members seemed bent at exonerating governor Mutebile while demonizing other BoU officials was an indication that they were on a mission to fix some people. “Just like the president takes responsibility for whatever goes wrong in the country, there is no way other BoU top management officials can be culpable when the governor is not. What sort of governor would Mutebile be if people in lower positions can do all those things without him being aware?” Babu rhetorically asked.
His skepticism discomforted fellow guest Medard Segona whose efforts to defend the COSASE image were not easily accepted by other people on the panel. Babu was supported by Ofwono Opondo who said that the fact that in some cases Katuntu named people by one name (e.g. Tebandeke on page 7) is evidence that MPs were paid to protect some people by not fully disclosing their identities. Reflecting on his old journalism days, Opondo referred to fellow reporters (especially those based in court) who used to be paid by people in the dock not to disclose their full identities but refer to them by one name the following day. Nobert Mao agreed with Opondo and accused COSASE of raising public expectations at their televised BoU hearings only to deliver a very half-baked report which he said left many citizens very disappointed and finally believing earlier social media allegations. “They raised a lot of expectations and people expected the report to come with a bang but instead they have ended up with a whimper,” Mao said. Opondo and Mao advised that the only way the speaker can redeem the image of Parliament regarding the COSASE fiasco is by demanding for the addendum to the report so that specific names of the officials can be known beyond just general sweeping statements that are visible everywhere in the report. Opondo and Babu rejected Segona’s defensiveness of saying MPs’ hands were tied and instead argued that the terms of reference were broad and permissive enough for the MPs to a much better job. Segona referred to the Kakoza Mutale case filed by Fox Odoi in which court held that Parliament can not force the president to fire anyone. “At least as COSASE we have exposed the problems in the law and the injustices BoU committed while closing commercial banks,” Segona repeatedly said. Ofwono Opondo rejected whatever Segona was saying insisting there was nothing extraordinary about the COSASE report. Babu said it’s important that an explanation is given to the public as to why Mutebile was allowed to get away with many things at the expense of his subordinates at BoU. Even Semuju Nganda for the first time disagreed with his ally Segona saying he was very disappointed with the way COSASE protected wrong doers by not disclosing any name. Semuju agreed with Babu’s observation that the whole probe was about crane bank because previous Auditor General reports had not attracted much attention by the same COSASE leadership. Semuju said as he faced Segona that he was disappointed COSASE wants other agencies like IGG and Police to redo the same investigation yet they had the latitude under the very flexible terms of reference to do comprehensive report. He said this escapism by COSASE amounted to betraying the Ugandan taxpayers. Semuju referred to PAC reports of the past which made Nandala Mafabi famous because they always pinned individual actors unlike the COSASE report that was written anonymously in a large measure. Semuju said the report has created too much darkness and ambiguity to the extent that members of the public can’t tell who exactly to be angry against. The panelist said it was irresponsible for COSASE to find that the BoU top management decisions caused financial loss but failed to specifically pin Mutebile as BoU boss and instead made recommendations that government uses the taxpayers’ money to pay Crane Bank shareholders for the billions they lost as a result of the anomalous decisions that were made by the Mutebile-led BoU top management. Capt. Babu also said it was strange that COSASE never grilled anybody from the Finance Ministry and the treasury whose officials in his view are as culpable because they failed in their supervision duty over BoU. For comments, call or text 0752510225.
