By Athnus Faith
Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile has been under fire from members of the Committee on Commissions Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) over expenditure in the Central Bank between 2013/15 and 2016/17 financial years.
These were audit reports done by the Office of the Auditor General. In the meetings, Prof. Mutebile took turns with his deputy, Dr. Louis Kasekende to respond to the queries raised by the committee members. Two issues stood out, with the first being a concern on the legal fees Bank of Uganda (BoU) was spending on external lawyers. The amount in question is about Ushs 1.5 billion, paid to external lawyers, yet BoU had a fully-fledged financed legal department – according to the MPs. About Ushs 1.5 billion was spent on the lawyers, with an outstanding balance of Ushs 16 billion.
Abdu Katuntu, the Committee Chairperson questioned the reason for tax payers having to dig deep in their pockets to pay staff at Bank of Uganda Legal Department yet at the same time foot the bill for private lawyers.
Strong Vote of Confidence: Mbire Reappointed MTN Uganda ChairmanHe also tasked the Central Bank to table the criteria used to determine the cases the Central Bank forwards to private lawyers, and those that the internal lawyers take on.
Margaret Kaggwa Kasule, Legal Director at BoU noted that the private lawyers had been hired to help handle cases in High court as well as provide legal opinion.
On the criteria used to call in the private lawyers, Kaggwa noted, “That decision is taken by the legal counsel through internal consultation with the lawyers. It depends on the complexity of the matter and a number of other issues.
