Suspects at Anti Corruption court

Freda Wanyama and Francis Kakeeto, arrested in connection with the latest scandal at Bank of Uganda, have been produced at the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo.

They supervised the loading of cargo on the chartered flight that reportedly carried extra pallets of currency.

The Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP] has charged them with abuse of office and corruption as an alternative count allegedly committed on 26th April, 2019 between France, Belgium and Entebbe International Airport.

The pair was sent to France in April to witness transportation of bank notes printed from Oberthur Fiduciaire.

The money amounting to Shs350bn in denominations of Shs50,000 loaded on a chartered plane and then the same plane loaded other cargo without notifying Oberthur.

They denied the charges and applied for bail which was denied on account of lack of necessary documents by the sureties.

Grade One Magistrate Abert Asiimwe has sent them to Luzira prison on remand until June 25, 2019.

MPs to summon BoU officials

Meanwhile, the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) has said it will summon all officials involved in the alleged Bank of Uganda currency saga.

Officials from Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Thursday failed to respond to many questions put before them by Cosase members in relation to mishandling of the cargo plane which carried Bank of Uganda (BoU) currency and private cargo on the same flight.

Ronald Barongo, the CAA director for Safety and Security, told Cosase that they received an application from an agent in Kenya to permit the chartered plane permission to land at Entebbe airport with printed material.

CAA was not aware of the extra cargo which was on the plane or what it contained.

“It’s true that we received an application to allow in a flight with printed material belonging to BOU but we did not know about extra consignment since it was not included in the application,” he explained.

Sooma Ayub, the director of Airport Security, said they did not check the cargo upon arrival since transfer of currency has a special arrangement which is usually left to BoU officials to handle.

He said BoU cargo was not screened because it was a special consignment and thus they cannot tell what was inside.

The currency cargo has its special arrangement which starts and ends in Bank of Uganda.

This particular cargo has special escorts who go straight to the airport with their bullion van to pick the money.

Ibrahim Kasozi, the deputy chairperson of Cosase, questioned CAA officials as to whether the country is safe given the fact that some commodities can easily enter the country unscreened under the name of Bank of Uganda.

He said wrong people might exploit the situation and use BoU name to sneak into the country drugs, bombs and other dangerous materials.

Last week, State House Anti-corruption Unit and police arrested several senior BoU officials and officials from the Customs Department, airport police officers and CAA staff after a chartered plane carrying Uganda currency also had other private cargo.By edgeug and agencies.