The Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) has joined the Inspectorate of Government and Uganda Revenue Authority to investigate the wealth of Justine Bagyenda, the former director in charge of supervision at Bank of Uganda.
A whistle blower recently petitioned FIA demanding that Bagyenda should be investigated over her nearly-obscene amounts of money in her accounts.
The same whistle blower also petitioned the IGG and URA, asking the two institutions probe Bagyenda’s wealth.
FIA executive director Sydney Asubo FIA told journalists that the authority had opened inquiries into the matter.
FIA, is compiling the information about Bagyenda and her alleged wealth, which Asubo said will be shared with other agencies like IGG and the Police.
FIA is a government agency, established in 2014 by Act of Parliament to monitor, investigate and prevent money laundering in Uganda.
Last week, IGG Irene Mulyagonja quizzed Bagyenda over her alleged wealth which it is reported, she accumulated in the last six years, as director in charge of supervision.
Unconfirmed reports indicate the FIA met Bagyenda last week. IGG’s spokesperson Ali Munira said if Bagyenda is found guilty, she will lose her property and will be barred from holding office, according to the Leadership Code.
Commercial Banks apologises
Barclays Bank Uganda and Diamond Trust Bank last week apologized to Bagyenda for exposing her accounts details in the media.
It was reported that Bagyenda had Shs19billion on three different accounts, which sparked a public debate on how she accumulated such amount of money, according to sources within six years.
BoU auditors were further shocked on learning that Bagyenda operates both Shillings and Dollar accounts in Diamond Trust Bank, Centenary and Barclays banks on which she is statching away the billions, although how she accumulated all this money has remained subject to lots of queries.
Sources reveal that Bagyenda owns account number 5106903903 in Diamond Trust Bank described as ‘low start savings account’ which as of December 01, 2017, had a total of Shs11.4 billion.
“The same account is expecting another Shs429 million on March, 07 2018 when the Shs179 million she fixed in September 2017 at 10 per cent rate matures,” one of the sources revealed.
Barclays Bank Ltd said in a press release that disciplinary action is being taken against the employee responsible for unauthorised access to Bagyenda accounts in line with the law and the policies.
“Internal company policies, protecting our customers’ personal data is an utmost priority for us as an organisation,” the bank stated.
DTB also said one of their own staff corruptly leaked the details to outsiders.
Sources say the two banks will be fined for failing to report transactions on Ms Bagyenda’s accounts as regulations stipulate.
