The reappointment of sacked and disgraced former Bank of Uganda Executive Director, Mrs. Justine Bagyenda to the board of Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) now hangs in balance following her failure to report to the parliamentary Appointments Committee.
FIA is a government agency established by the Parliament of Uganda under The Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2013, to monitor, investigate, and prevent money laundering in the country.
Bagyenda was scheduled to appear before the committee at 11:40am to defend her reappointment by Finance Minister, Matia Kasaijja, but by close of business yesterday, she had not appeared. However, other board members such as Mr. Leo Kibirago, who is the designated FIA Board chairperson; Mr. Patrick Ocailap, Grace Akullo’s and Ms Patricia Mutesi all turned up
Even though Bagyenda, who is facing a raft of investigations from the Financial Intelligence Authority itself as well as the Inspectorate of Government, did not turn up, the committee already had a number of petitions against her re-appointment.
MPs under the African Parliamentary Network against corruption including Manjiya County’s John Baptist Nambeshe (pictured above) and Kumi Municipality’s Silas Aogon presented three (3) petitions at a press conference, pushing for her reappointment to be overturned.
“These petitions object in the strongest terms, the reappointment or renewal of appointment of a one Justine Bagyenda,” said Nambeshe.
Bagyenda’s reappointment, which was apparently made in May this year, came as a shock to many. Mr Kasaijja who made the appointment, following the loud outcry is said to have backtracked in his footsteps.
“We demand for answers from the Ministry of Finance. Why on earth would he (Matia Kasaiija) again insist on maintaining the name of Justine Bagyenda … when he knows very well that, this is a woman who has a high level of moral turpitude (wickedness)?”
He told Daily Monitor, then that: “When I re-appointed her, the issues of money laundering and others were not yet in the press. There is no way I could have re-appointed her with question marks surrounding her integrity.”
But when it was put to him that by May 7, when the reappointment letter was authored, it was public knowledge that Mrs. Bagyenda was under probe, Mr. Kasaija evasively asked for another day to crosscheck his facts.
He has neither withdrawn his reappointment nor commented on the said appointment since then.
With her reappointment to FIA in balance and her out of Bank of Uganda, Bagyenda‘s luck seems to be slowly running out.
