BoU officials in court today for bail

CORRUPTION  CRIME   JUSTICE

KAMPALA - Two Bank of Uganda (BOU) officials who were arrested over issues related to the transfer of currency from France are slated to appear before the Anti-Corruption Court on Tuesday for hearing of their bail application.

Francis Kakeeto and Fred Wanyama, who are both currency managers of the Mbale and Kabale branch respectively, were last week denied bail by Grade One Magistrate, Abert Asiimwe because the sureties they had presented were not substantial.

Court documents indicate that the two senior bank officials travelled to France to inspect the printing and packaging of the money into the aircraft that flew it to Uganda.

The two officers were charged following a controversial BOU procurement of sh350b from a French money printing firm Oberthur Fiduciaire that was under investigation by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and Criminal Investigations Directorate.

Last week, six top officials from BOU were arrested and questioned by the Police and State House Anti-Corruption Unit over issues related to transfer of currency from France.

The officers were arrested after anomalies were found in the BOU consignment which arrived at Entebbe airport in late April.

The money was flown to Entebbe from Liege Airport in Belgium on April 27 aboard Ms Kuehne+ Nagel cargo plane. Other reports had indicated that they had been arrested over the printing of excess money amounting to sh90b.