KAMPALA – Focus will return to the looming shakeup at the central bank in the new year with the contract of Dr. Louis Kasekende, the Deputy Governor left with only two weeks to end.
Dr Kasekende has for long been touted to replace aging Governor Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile but a fallout resulting from a parliamentary inquiry into illegal closures of seven commercial banks has since tipped matters against most senior managers at the central bank.
Parliament recommended massive changes at BoU and President Yoweri Museveni has since gone silent on the matter of renewal of the contract of Dr. Kasekende,which is running out mid January 2020.
It is understood that Prof. Mutebile will retire before the end of his term in January 2021, and the central bank will be re-orgsnised with a new structure that will create two deputy governors and an executive board independent of top management.
After he ringing changes in Cabinet earlier this month, sources said Predident Museveni was set to take on government agencies with the Inspectorate of Government, the Uganda Human Rights Commission and BoU with Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile and his deputy Louis Kasekende expected to be shuffled.
The authoritative Independent Magazine recently reported that Dr. Kasekende had in November sought audience with President Museveni without success, and with Parliament in recess, he is set to he the first top dog out at BoU.
The Online Watchdog Uganda, has on Tuesday December 30 reported that the deputy Governor was seen consulting with Secretary to the Treasury Mr. Keith Muhakanizi during the Christmas holiday.
Sources however insist that the President is expected to implement structural changes at the Central Bank following as a series of scandals such as the currency saga and the controversial closure of seven commercial banks.
Parliament Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that investigated into the closure of seven commercial banks by Bank of Uganda confirmed irregularities in the dissolution of banks, exposed mismanagement at the Central Bank and proposed key reforms while providing wholesale recommendations against BoU officials guilty of the prevailing mistakes.
The COSASE report recommended that some shareholders be compensated for the losses. It also recommended that BoU officials (without naming them) who committed the mistakes, be held personally responsible for the mess involving the closure of the banks. The currency saga also cast a dark shadow over the central bank in May following allegations of printing of extra Shs90b and transportation of an authorised cargo on a chartered plane.
The Principal of Makerere University Business School (MUBS), Prof Waswa Balunywa, and Dr Richard Byarugaba, the managing director of National Social Security Fund (NSSF), are the front runners for the job.
