The Central Bank has confirmed that Dr. Charles Kasedde a former head of treasury at Bank of Uganda Mbale was fired due to theft.
The confirmation comes a day after our Story reporting of how Kasedde was arrested and is being probed by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Crime Intelligence (CID) Kireka.
As noted in our story, when we contacted the central bank’s spokesperson for comment, she declined to comment, promising to call later.
Now, the acting deputy governor of BoU Dr. Adam Mugume has issued a statement, saying that the central bank is aware of the probe and it is collaborating with investigators.
“The implicated officer, Mr. Charles Kasedde, was terminated from the services of Bank of Uganda in August 2019 on grounds of theft and misconduct. Management subsequently handed over the matter to the Police Criminal Investigations Department for further management,” reads the statement.
“The Bank of Uganda has continued to render the Uganda Police and other investigating Government organs all the necessary information to ensure that the matter is brought to its logical conclusion.”
CID spokesperson Charles Twine told us that Kasedde is suspected to have been involved in the disappearance of banknotes due for disposal.
It’s a practice at the central bank to destroy old bank notes.
According to Mugume, the case emerged in July 2019 and was “adequately handled by Management and the Board of Directors” at the bank before they handed it over to CID.
It’s now estimated that close to Ugx 400 million meant to be discarded has been lost through such schemes and investigators are also looking into wealth obtained by Charles Ocheng while still working at the bank and his case file is already at the Directorate of Public Prosecution for scrutiny.
Consequently, Francis Kakeeto and Fred Wanyama, who are currency managers at Mbale and Kabale branches respectively, were arrested and charged with abuse of office and corruption.
It’s however not the very first time BoU being accused of theft and fraud, in 2017, officials at the Central Bank sold Tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia’s Crane Bank On Phone. A case which has let Bank of Uganda to lose billions of Money in Compensation.
Mugume however said the bank has since instituted “stricter controls” to prevent any further abuse of operational procedures.
