KAMPALA – Lawmakers on the Committee on Commissions Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) have on Wednesday, August 21, expressed their frustration over the Central Bank Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile’s failure to appear before the committee for a fresh probe into the closure of Cooperative Bank.
On Tuesday, lawmakers had protested the move by Mutebile who had delegated the Executive Director Banking Supervision Tumubweine Twinemanzi with emphasis that the Governor has to show up and answer allegations by Cooperative Bank’s former directors.
However, Mutebile was unavailable. He instead wrote to the Committee informing them that he wouldn’t be in a position to attend in person as he had earlier scheduled a meeting with all Executives of commercial banks and that he was fully engaged until next week.
He requested the Committee to reschedule the meeting to the second week of September.
However, Mutebile’s letter was met with protest from the Committee members like Kira Municipality’s Ssemujju Nganda who asked the Committee to use its powers and determine the next time Mutebile should appear.
“That the Governor will even determine when he will appear as if governing Bank of Uganda is a private estate. I propose we issue summons under our rules and constitution because committees of parliament have powers of the high court when it comes to compelling witnesses to appear, I don’t think Mutebile will tell the court the same thing. This time he must be summoned such that if he doesn’t appear that day, we can order for his arrest and he appears like all other people who have defied the authority of Parliament,” said Ssemujju.
Gideon Onyango (Samya Bugwe North) called on the Committee not to fall for Mutebile’s please arguing that Mutebile is a public servant who should be serving Ugandans, “I would assume that Mutebile is there to serve Ugandans but if you can give priorities to your meetings, parties at the expense of crying Ugandans, it is something we ought to take seriously, we don’t need to compromise on it.”
Muyanja Mbabali (Bukuto South) said that there is no need for the Committee to work under people’s time tables and that the Committee has its own time table that must be complied with.
COSASE Chairperson, Mubarak Munyagwa ruled to have Mutebile appear on Thursday and summon will be extracted accordingly and it will be served by the end of business today.
It should be recalled that recently, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga instructed the committee to re-investigate the closure of Cooperative Bank following a petition from Chris Karobwa claiming he was a victim of Bank of Uganda’s fraud and infighting saying such conduct should not simply be washed down the drain to benefit the wrongdoers.
