MPs Want Bank Of Uganda In­ves­ti­gate over Crane Bank Saga

Bu­dadiri West MP Nathan Nan­dala Mafabi has asked Par­lia­ment to in­ves­ti­gate al­leged cases of negligence by the Bank of Uganda, in re­la­tion to the col­lapse of Crane Bank.

Mafabi, in a mo­tion tabled to Par­lia­ment on Thursday, con­tended that the Cen­tral Bank only turned a blind eye to in­ef­fi­cien­cies in Crane Bank be­cause of un­eth­i­cal con­duct by par­tic­u­lar in­di­vid­u­als.

“The sys­tem­atic in­sti­tu­tional fail­ure by the Bank of Uganda to fulfill its core statu­tory man­date is an indica­tor of in­com­pe­tence and po­ten­tial com­plic­ity on the part of the Bank of Uganda,” he said.

He says there is a lot of rot that has been kept un­der the car­pet and only Par­lia­ment can un­earth it through a se­lect com­mit­tee.

Ac­cord­ing to the leg­is­la­tor, most of the mess in Crane Bank gained im­mu­nity due to what he de­scribed as “col­lu­sion, cor­rup­tion, in­sider trad­ing and fraud that went un­de­tected or was [sim­ply] cov­ered up.”

The law­maker also said that the Crane Bank pro­pri­etor Sud­hir Ru­pare­ria cul­ti­vates so­cial cap­i­tal with those meant to su­per­vise him, thus the col­lu­sion.

“Par­lia­ment needs to carry out a com­pre­hen­sive in­ves­ti­ga­tion into the role of Bank of Uganda in the mis­man­age­ment of Crane Bank, in­quire into and as­sess the per­for­mance and liq­uid­ity of Bank of Uganda among oth­ers.”

He also wants Par­lia­ment to grill of­fi­cers in the cen­tral bank who were di­rectly charged with the supervision of Crane Bank as well as Bank of Ugan­da’s ca­pac­ity to su­per­vise fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions in the coun­try.

The mo­tion was sec­onded by Igara West MP Raphael Magyezi and Nakawa Di­vi­sion MP Michael Kabazzig­u­ruka.

The mo­tion comes at the time when there has been a lot of pub­lic de­bate and an un­re­solved estrangement be­tween Bank of Uganda and for­mer Crane Bank pro­pri­etors and stake­hold­ers.

The Deputy Speaker, Hon Ja­cob Oulanyah asked for time to study the re­quest fear­ing that it might already be un­der the Com­mit­tee on Com­mis­sions, Statu­tory Au­thor­i­ties and State En­ter­prises chaired by Bug­w­eri County MP, Ab­dul Katuntu.

@Parliament