Katureebe Opposed UCB Deal

By Anne Mugisa FORMER Attorney General, Bart Katureebe (pictured above) said yesterday he opposed Westmont Land (Asia) assigning of its shares to Greenland Investments right from the start. Katureebe who was reacting to accusations by Sulaiman Kiggundu, the managing director of the defunct Greenland Bank, that he was involved in discussions with him said, “Westmont had no shares to assign because it had defaulted from paying the government.” He also said he could not even think of recommending Greenland Bank because it had bidded for UCB and had been rejected by the Central Bank. Katureebe said he was contacted by Maj. Gen. Salim Saleh who sought his opinion on the possibility of Westmont signing its shares to Greenland Investments. He said this was after Westmont failed to pay government the remaining money for Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB). Westmont paid US$1m but failed to raise the rest of the money asking for extension of the period twice. Katureebe said when Saleh rang him, he rang the then Minister of Finance, Mr Mayanja Nkangi, who in turn invited him for a meeting. He said he went to the finance ministry with some of his lawyers where they met with Nkangi, PS Tumusiime Mutebile, State minister in charge of privatisation, Matthew Rukikaire and Leonard Muganwa from the Privatisation Unit. He said he and his lawyers gave their opinion against assigning the alleged Westmont shares. “I said three things; first that Westmont was the one in breach and therefore had no shares to assign. Second that Greenland Investments had bidded for UCB and BOU rejected them, so this would be like coming in from the backdoor, and three that let us cancel all dealings with Westmont and send the matter back to DRIC and the Cabinet,” Katureebe said. “I left with my lawyers after giving our legal opinion. I did not attend any subsequent meeting. If Kiggundu went to court and said I held a meeting with him and others in the office of the Minister of Finance, then he committed perjury,” he added. Katureebe said when the Westmont deal went wrong and he and his team tried to rescue what government had lost, Kiggundu asked for a secret meeting. “Kiggundu rang me and said he wanted to meet me outside office, but I told him he must come to the office. Then he told me he wanted to settle out of court,” Katureebe said. Katureebe said Kiggundu then went to his office with Salim Saleh and “when Kiggundu saw that I had called the Acting Solicitor General to attend the meeting, he asked, ‘Why do you bring in somebody else’ and I told him it is an official matter and therefore the official must attend.” Katureebe said Kiggundu said he wanted to settle the matter out of court. “I insisted that Westmont must return what it took from government,” Katureebe said. He said Kiggundu then suggested a meeting with him and the Westmont officials outside Kampala, preferably Nairobi. He said Kiggundu also “asked me to ask the Director of Public Prosecutions to drop the case against him and I told him that I do not control the DPP’s operations.” Katureebe said Kiggundu then threatened that if the case was not withdrawn, he would go to court and cause a lot of embarrassment to some people but “I refused.” Ends