Bank of Uganda, ministry of Finance staff, not hackers behind Shs 60bn heist

The investigation into the theft of Shs 60 billion from Bank of Uganda (BOU) has taken a new twist after it was discovered that it was a well-orchestrated inside job by BOU staff in collaboration with the staff of ministry of Finance and the Accountant General's office.

Although the grand theft came to the public fore this week, URN understands that the money disappeared nearly five weeks ago, and President Yoweri Museveni then directed Maj Tom Magambo, director police’s Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) to take the lead in finding out how the money was siphoned out of the coffers.

To date, 17 at least people have been probed including nine from BOU, six from the Finance ministry and two from the Accountant General's office. All the suspects are currently under tight security surveillance and some of their gadgets such as laptops and smartphones have been confiscated.

Furthermore, the president tasked Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS) formerly Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) to spearhead the investigations in collaboration with CID and ESO.

Although the army and police which oversee CID have remained cagey about the matter, Henry Musasizi, the state minister for Finance confirmed to parliament the ongoing probe. He added that the amount of money being reported in local and international media is too much.

However, Musasizi did not reveal the exact amount of money BOU lost but promised to tell parliament the final details after the probe. Musasizi’s response was triggered by the leader of opposition Joel Ssenyonyi, who demanded the government’s explanation about the theft.

BoU has reportedly already written to the UK authorities and some accounts where over $11m (about Shs 40 billion) had been wired have since been frozen.

“As part of the efforts to recover the siphoned money, BOU and CID demanded Interpol-Uganda intervention and an alert note was sent to Japan, UK and Interpol headquarters. There are other three countries where investigations are leading to and they might also be given an alert once investigations confirm that part of the money ended there,” sources said.

Interpol-Uganda is headed by Joseph Obwana, deputized by Fred Enanga and Yusuf Ssewanyana, who are grounded in economic crime investigations. Obwana was deputy to now retired AIGP Grace Akullo when she was director CID, Enanga once served as economic crime investigator at CID while Ssewanyana is an IT expert who until three months ago was director police’s ICT directorate.