By Our Reporters
Having a good name especially as one retires from public life is an ideal everyone aspires to and enduring something similar to IGG Irene Mulyagonja’s latest letter is something outgoing Bugweri County Abdul Katuntu must be sleepless about. At about 4pm Wednesday evening one of our trusted sources inboxed us a two page dossier authored by the IGG Irene Mulyagonja calling on ISO Director General Frank Kaka Bagyenda to immediately commence investigations into a range of very damaging allegations a whistle blower recently made against Abdul Katuntu, his COSASE Vice chairperson Anita Among, MPs Odonga Otto, Elijah Okupa and other members. In a 19th February letter copied only to Speaker Kadaga, Mulyagonja directs Kaka to investigate claims that Katuntu and Amongi lacked the required impartiality to probe Bank of Uganda’s ineptness in the closure of 7 commercial banks because they are close associates of Sudhir Ruparelia the proprietor of one of the banks that had been closed. For the IGG the duo should have declared conflict of interest at the start of the inquiry because the BoU probe is something their close associate Sudhir had vested interest in. That the duo irregularly had many meetings with Sudhir, his son Rajiv and senior members of KAA, the law firm that represented him in court battles against BoU. That such meetings were rampant during the course of the probe which the IGG implies was improper conduct. That MPs Odonga Otto and Elijah Okupa are some of the influential COSASE members that were curiously regularly in touch with Sudhir and Rajiv. The IGG asks Kaka to establish the truth behind claims that Katuntu & Co received gratifications from Sudhir and Rajiv which is the very reason why they refused to quit COSASE leadership when their time was up. The IGG asks Kaka to also inquire into claims that Katuntu was among the debtors of Global Trust Bank (one of the 7 closed institutions) with a loan balance of Shs180m at the time it was closed on 25th July 2012. The IGG notes that it was improper for Katuntu not to disclose that conflict of interest yet such unpaid loans partly led to the bank’s collapse and closure. That during the probe period, Katuntu received Shs400m from Emmanuel Mutebile’s BoU as facilitation to carry out benchmarking trips to study Central Banks elsewhere yet he never declared this cash to the leadership of Parliament or the rest of COSASE members. That this was a sweetener that led to Mutebile being treated leniently compared to the way other BoU officials were treated before COSASE. That Mutebile was in return not asked tough questions and was also allowed to pretend not to have known much about the closed banks yet he takes responsibility being the CEO for the Central Bank. The IGG further asks Kaka to investigate claims that Sudhir bribed Mutebile with millions of dollars. The leaked IGG letter also indicts new BoU Director Banks Supervision Dr. Twinemanzi Tumubweine saying he is Sudhir’s blossom buddy who would even leak confidential information to him in connivance with some heavily compromised COSASE members. That Twinemanzi has often been visiting Sudhir at his Kabira Country Club and Speke Apartments in Kololo. The original whistle blower petition Mulyagonja quotes was also copied to Kaka whom he concludes by informing: “This office has decided that ISO is in a better position to investigate this and we hereby refer the same to your office for investigation. We request that you provide us with a copy of the report of your findings and action taken on conclusion of your investigation.”
BAD DAYS FOR KATUNTU
In case the COSASE team indeed ever engaged in any improper conduct as indicated in the IGG’s letter, the chances of people surviving criminal prosecution and rebuilding their images are increasingly very minimal because Kaka, who has been tasked to investigate, is a no nonsense man. One also has to reflect on who he knows and the people he works with very closely. Among the mighty he is closely very much associated with is PPS Molly Kamukama who actually isn’t on very good terms with the Ruparellias. They have actually been fighting her and waiting to celebrate the day she will fall from grace. For unknown reasons, they consider her to be one of the key people around the President who declined using their clout to do their bidding. Should that play into Kaka’s calculus, then the Katuntus could as well have their goose cooked already as proving any culpability on the side of the Ruparellias will no doubt strengthen Molly Kamukama who considers them serious rivals. But even personally Kaka is very decisive and meticulous in his work. He despises mediocrity, material things and is incorruptible the very reason ISO has lately earned lots of public trust because of the courage with which they have insisted on revisiting unresolved murders like that of Andrew Felix Kaweesi, Joan Kagezi and others. Having suffered decline in the Gen Kale Kayihura era as IGP, even the boys Kaka works are motivated to achieve in order to revive the clout of their organization. All this means that, unless President Museveni intervenes and asks Kaka to slow down (he might do that for political expedience), the ISO teams won’t be leaving any stone unturned. That too will work well for Museveni politically because allowing Kaka to do the job without interference will send out a strong message that Museveni is finally very resolute on stamping out corruption and impropriety. Yet allowing Kaka to do his work will also kill many birds with one stone for the President including paying back/revenging on Abdul Katuntu for the political torment he caused him over the years. It’s equally an opportunity to cripple previously very outspoken critics like Otto and Okupa so that they are politically gone forever without any capability to ever cause trouble again. But Museveni can also remain vague and play the waiting game whereby Kaka is tolerated to do his job very professionally to the end, subjecting the Katuntus to a lot of public ridicule, in which case they run to him (Museveni) seeking for his political intervention for them to overcome Kaka. This makes them eternally grateful to Museveni for saving them. But none of this constitutes a cup of tea for Katuntu whose interest ideally should have been to retire back to Bugweri or to his law firm in Kampala with grace to ensure preservation of the good name he has cultivated all these years. The Mulyagonja development comes at a time when public anger is being exhibited with even his own friends saying the COSASE BoU report he produced was less than satisfactory. Already on day one as Parliament debated it, majority members showed disgust arguing the report is a far cry from the quality they expected from the previously much-praised Katuntu. He doesn’t seem to have many options to choose from in order to ensure this doesn’t become the very sad ending to his otherwise inspiring public service career. The likes of Anita Among may not be as sleepless because (even without repeating the contemptuous things Semujju Nganda said about her onetime), the Bukedea woman MP is comparatively young with a little bit of age still on her side. She can always improve and redeem her image. For comments, call or text 0752510225.
