State House anti-corruption team arrests five directors

Five directors at Bank of Uganda have been arrested by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit in an ongoing crack on corruption in government agencies.

The move to arrest the five was informed by a whistleblower who informed the unit about the loss of huge monies getting lost at Entebbe International Airport upon arrival from German where the said cash had been printed, eagle online, a digital newspaper reports.

Sources told the publication that about two months ago, a team from Bank of Uganda was dispatched to travel to German aboard a chartered airplane to ferry the printed cash to Uganda where the Ugandan currency is printed and upon reaching their destination, the Uganda team that was led by a one Dr. Barenzi who is the deputy director in charge of operations. Dr. Barenzi represented Charles Malinga Akol, BoU’s Executive Director Operations who was on leave to ferry the money.

The publication further reports that upon getting the German, Dr. Barenzi and another officer allegedly printed money to a tune of Shs90 billion in excess and some of the said Shs90 billion was used for purchasing goods which were as well loaded into the chartered plane.

The said directors include Barenzi, three other gentlemen and a lady; they were driven to Entebbe Airport under tight security where CCTV footage of the said day was reviewed. The team established some vital information before the said team traveled back to Kampala for further interrogation.

However, upon landing at Entebbe International Airport where they were received by another team from BoU and the security team, the two officials ferried the pirates that contained the balance of the Shs90 billion into their own vehicles and drove to BoU.

Nevertheless, what is perturbing investigators is the fact that between Entebbe and Kampala, the balance of extra Shs90 billion never reached the coffers of BoU.

Sources say that what could have brought the incident to light was the insistence by officials from Uganda Revenue Authority based at Entebbe International Airport who also insisted on verifying the bill of lading to verify whether the extra Shs90 billion and bought items had been had been cleared by the Germans before the airplane departed for Entebbe.

Upon receiving the complaint from URA, BoU is said to have initiated its internal investigations on how the flight from German to Entebbe was flown and who was aboard, the exact amount cleared by the printing firm and other items. As the investigation continued, it was revealed that extra cash had been printed and was inserted on to the plane after the billing of lading had been cleared by the agents and the plane authority.

The Nile Wires understands that the head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, Lt Col Edith Nakalema is set to address the media over the arrests made.