KAMPALA – Motor mouthed presidential advisor Joseph Tamale Mirundi has put on notice senior officials at Bank of Uganda, caught up in the fallout following the controversial sale of Crane Bank Ltd to dfcu Bank, asking his boss President Museveni to wield the axe.
Mr Mirundi, appearing on his weekly talk-show on popular local TV NBS, said the officials had been used to intimidating everybody in the financial sector but have found city tycoon Sudhir Rupaleria whose Crane Bank was controversially sold a hard nut to crack.
“Don’t intimidate everybody! The issue is one, you stole Sudhir’s bank. He is as smart as you, [so] you have to vomit it to have your peace. Sudhir doesn’t want anything from you, he only wants his bank, period!” Mr Mirundi said before inviting President Museveni to sack the central bank officials.
“The President should also know that these people stole like another theft that has happened before. He should work on them and give back Sudhir his bank,” he said.
The dfcu Bank acquired Crane Bank, the then 4th largest bank on February 27, 2017, at a fee later to be discovered as a paltry Shs 200 billion. However Former Crane Bank shareholders led by majority shareholder Sudhir Ruparelia and family have dragged the Bank of Uganda (BoU) to court, claiming their bank was sold to dfcu without considering their interests in accordance with the Financial Institutions Act.
The Auditor General, Mr. John Muwanga kicked off a probe in April into the closure of seven private financial institutions by Bank of Uganda whose findings were shocking.
The Auditor General has since released an 80-page report which he submitted to Parliament and several other government agencies implicating BOU officials over impropriety.
