The Anti-Corruption Unit of State House headed by Lt Col Edith Nakalema Wednesday raided Bank of Uganda and arrested five officials accused of printing their own money.
According to reports close to Shs90 billion could have printed under this illegal scheme and shipped into Uganda.
Investigators are trying to establish how such big sums of money could be printed without the knowledge of the top leaders of the bank including both the Governor and his deputy.
It is reported that the officials have been printing money off the official approved figures and the unit impounded Shs60bn as evidence.
The money entered Uganda through Entebbe airport well printed and was transported using Bank of Uganda currency vans to the Central Bank.
Sources reveal 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 and upon reaching German, 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.
Its reported that upon getting to German, Dr. Barenzi and another officer allegedly printed money to a tune of Shs90 billion in excesses and some of the said Shs90 billion was used for purchasing goods which were as well loaded into the chartered plane. 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 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.
However, according to interrogators, the airplane authority came out first and apologised acknowledging that they had been duped by the two officials to load extra cash and items despite the clearance from the German authorities.
However, it is at this time that Director Malinga who had been on leave got involved because his name had been dragged in, accordingly, Mr. Malinga is said to have informed the Governor Emmanuel Mutebile about the incident and thereafter, the two agreed to brief the President and State House Anti-Corruption Unit.
Upon briefing the president, it is said he was furious about the incident and immediately directed that Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema and head of Criminal Investigation Department, Assistant Inspector of Police Grace Akullo investigate deeper to find out where the said balance of the Shs90 billion is and also established the motive by the culprits.
Additional information: Eagle Online
