OPEN LETTER TO THE INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE (IGP) GENERAL KALE KAIHURA

Dear General Kaihura,

I am writing to you in three capacities that is: as an Old Boy of St. Mary’s College Kisubi which you joined in 1974 as an HSC student; as an opposition politician whose rights have been trampled on by the NRM Government and as a concerned Ugandan.

As an Old Boy, I feel I have mandate to write to you in that at least I have been involved in activities for the benefit of the Old Boys of St. Mary’s College Kisubi.  These among others include: Mobilizing Old Boys for the School Centenary which took place in 2006; as Editor of SMACK 100 Centenary Magazine; as a leading publisher on St. Mary’s College Kisubi; and most recently as a mobilizer of the Old Boys of the School to contribute to the funding of the HSC Storey Block under construction.  In this capacity, I wish to remind you that as an Old Boys, it is incumbent upon you to act as a Catholic Leader you are supposed to be.  As I write, there is an important debate of changing the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda to give President Museveni opportunity to the Life Presidency scheme. So far the officers below you have shown a partisan tendency.  While the public who wish to show support for the scheme of removing the Presidential age are free to show their colours; your officers do nor give opportunity to those opposed to the scheme however peaceful they are.  As your OB, I wish to tell you that when you leave this to go on as it is, you are not just and the public easily see this.  It is best that you let all the people express their wish as long as they are peaceful.  As a Christian and a Catholic, you ought to know what is just.  Under normal circumstances, President Museveni would be handing over power on reaching 75 years, more so after the removal of the Presidential term limits. This is important on your part as the leader of the Uganda Police Force.  You need to be a just man more so when you confess that you are a Catholic leader.

General Kale Kaihura, by this time I hope you know that I wanted to contest the Presidency of Uganda.  Unlike other Presidential candidates, I relied on the strength of my ability to mobilize having gone to a prestigious school where you were for Higher School.  True, some people may have been overwhelmed when they saw the response to my fundraising appeal in 2010.  However, I believe it would have been best for those concerned to consult me over this development.  Instead, they tried to make me believe that I did not realize a single coin in my fundraising efforts.  Of course I could not take any serious action because I imagined that the state had some interest. So, I did not contest in 2011 because I was denied access to funds that were to help me in my campaigns.

Mr. Kaihura Sir, the people of Uganda later learnt that there had been a fraud in Cairo International Bank.  I will not go to the details; however, information concerning bits of that fraud is attached.  It is sad that as I write, your office has not been able to tell Ugandans the source of the money.  No effort has been made to recover the funds from those who fraudulently benefitted.  I believe I was supposed to be a beneficiary of some of the money that was dished out.  General Kaihura, you are aware that Mr. Keith Muhakanizi was asked about shs 80bn or so which was deposited to NSSF for the benefit of Civil Servants.  Keith Muhakanizi said that the money was not part of the Government budget.

Mr. Kaihura Sir, when I was reading I studied hard for a better future.  Today, you are employed by the Government of Uganda, I also love to live decently.  I was from a poor background, but I have gone through many trials during the time of the NRM administration. I want you to have a second thought about my case.  I am not supposed to live the life of a pauper to which the NRM Government has condemned me to. Prior to the 2016 Presidential elections, as early as October 2014, I started my campaign for support to stand for President of Uganda. I changed banks and this time opened an account with Barclays bank. It disturbs me that the trend on 2010 is what I have experienced, no single coin through Barclays bank to my knowledge.  As you play your roles as Police Chief, I request you to be fair.  If the powers that be denied me opportunity to stand for President of Uganda, please release the funds due to my fundraising so that I can play a role in the betterment of the impoverished people of Uganda.  I have made appeals to the President; the NRM Chief whip, and nobody responds to my cries. The ball is in your court.  I seek justice.

Below is some information to do with the fraud in Cairo Bank where I believe funds due to me ended up with funny beneficiaries, and your office has nor endeavoured to tell Ugandans who was supposed to be the right full beneficiary of these funds.

   

PEN­SION SCAM: Bank of Uganda faulted for lax­ity, Cairo In­ter­na­tional Bank ad­mits wrong do­ing.

Dis­cussed in the Public Accounts Committee on July 7th, 2015

Home » Meet­ings » PEN­SION SCAM: Bank of Uganda faulted for lax­ity, Cairo In­ter­na­tional Bank ad­mits wrong do­ing.

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7th July 2015

The Par­lia­men­tary Pub­lic Ac­counts Com­mit­tee (PAC) has faulted Cairo In­ter­na­tional Bank for fa­cil­i­tat­ing and abet­ting fraud in the Shs.165 bil­lion pen­sion scam and faulted Bank of Uganda for lax­ity in its reg­u­la­tory and su­per­vi­sory role.

The com­mit­tee, which is cur­rently prob­ing  the fi­nan­cial im­pro­pri­ety of the pen­sion fund in the min­istry of pub­lic ser­vice met with of­fi­cials from Bank of Uganda and the man­age­ment of Cairo In­ter­na­tional Bank to hear their in­volve­ment in the pen­sion scam.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions found that bank ac­counts were opened up in Cairo In­ter­na­tional Bank in the names of for­mer em­ploy­ees of the de­funct East African Com­mu­nity or their ben­e­fi­cia­ries and their re­spec­tive gra­tu­ity monies were chan­nelled to the ac­counts.

Mr Be­nard Sek­abira the di­rec­tor su­per­vi­sion, Bank of Uganda told the com­mit­tee that in Feb­ru­ary 2009, the cen­tral Bank is­sued a re­port to Cairo Bank de­tail­ing sev­eral ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties which did not com­ply with statu­tory in­stru­ment 46, 2010 KYC (Know your Cus­tomer) which re­quires that every bank must know their cus­tomer.

It was re­vealed that sev­eral ac­counts were opened with­out ad­e­quate doc­u­ments, there was no risk pro­fil­ing, cus­tomer’s thumb prints were not cap­tured and there was no due dili­gence car­ried out by the bank on its cus­tomers and tele­phone num­bers on the ac­count doc­u­ments were nonex­is­tent among sev­eral other ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties. The same ac­counts were used to siphon 165 bil­lion to ghost pen­sion­ers.

The com­mit­tee heard heart break­ing tes­ti­monies from pen­sion­ers of the de­funct East African Com­mu­nity and Uganda Rail­ways Cor­po­ra­tion, whose pho­tographs were used on fake ac­counts to with­draw money pur­port­edly as their pen­sion and gra­tu­ity.

Ob­ulo Og­wal 68 years old pen­sioner told PAC that on 1^st Nov 2012, his pho­to­graph ap­peared in the news­pa­pers against the name Wandira Joseph Paul. Po­lice at Kibuli Po­lice sta­tion told him that 74 mil­lion was paid as his claim and yet he never re­ceived the money.

Pon­siano Odida (72), pen­sioner from Gulu while nar­rat­ing his or­deal said, “….but the mis­ery we the pen­sion­ers are hav­ing is very painful. We live in the hands of our chil­dren. It is very painful to see our only sources of money-pen­sion be­ing played with. My pho­to­graph ap­peared in the pa­pers un­der the name Loloviko. I was told that my shs. 81 mil­lion was paid to Loloviko. …Am a mis­er­able man, I live off my chil­dren.”

Mu­loki David (70) tes­ti­fied that his pho­to­graph was used to pay a one Sabi­iti John Cos­mas shs.89 mil­lion.

Jimmy Busulwa: (69) said shs. 75 mil­lion was paid to Han­ning­ton Basaj­jakambwe signed for by Mr. Saj­jabi, hav­ing told the bank that he was too old and too weak to come for the money.

The Act­ing Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Cairo Bank Mr Osama Dar­wish ad­mit­ted to the in­volve­ment of the bank of­fi­cials but said they did so as in­di­vid­u­als and all this was done be­hind the man­age­men­t’s back.

When asked how such ac­counts could be opened with­out the knowl­edge of man­age­ment, and how huge sums of money were with­drawn based on sus­pi­cious with­drawal forms, the Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor said he had no an­swers.

Mr. Osama how­ever said, “Ob­vi­ously there was a con­spir­acy in­volv­ing in­di­vid­u­als work­ing with the bank and of­fi­cials from Min­istry of Pub­lic ser­vice and un­til the po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions started top man­age­ment was not aware of the on­go­ing fraud but the in­di­vid­u­als have since been charged and their em­ploy­ment ter­mi­nated”

Mr. Osama nar­rated how Rahma and Sen­togo who were work­ing at the bank at the time had con­nived with Pe­ter Saj­jabi (rep­re­sent­ing the for­mer em­ploy­ees of the de­funct EAC) to with­draw mil­lions of money at a time us­ing forged sig­na­tures and ques­tion­able with­drawal slips

Hon Ababiku Woman MP Ababiku “Is­n’t Cairo bank part of the rot that is rob­bing peo­ple in this coun­try?”

Mr. Osama in re­sponse said that, “The scam was like a ham­mer on the head and we have since in­sti­tuted stronger in­ter­nal con­trol mea­sures, the qual­ity of staff and all mea­sures to ad­dress the gaps and com­ply­ing with the reg­u­la­tor Bank of Uganda es­pe­cially with the in­stru­ment KYC.”

The PAC chair­per­son Hon Al­ice Alaso said that, “Cairo In­ter­na­tional Bank de­lib­er­ately fa­cil­i­tated the pen­sion fraud by al­low­ing money to be si­phoned through their sys­tem and lead­ing to bil­lions of tax pay­er’s money be­ing to the lost.”

The Pub­lic Ac­counts Com­mit­tee also faulted Bank of Uganda for fail­ing to reg­u­late and su­per­vise com­mer­cial banks lead­ing to such cases of fraud.

Bank of Uganda de­fended it­self say­ing they did their role and took ac­tion against Cairo bank in­clud­ing down­grad­ing the bank and di­rect­ing it to ap­point a new board af­ter re­peated ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties and lapses and sub­ject­ing the new board and top man­age­ment to the BoU fit and proper as­sess­ment.

“Do you con­sider that the ac­tion taken by Bank of Uganda was ad­e­quate to avert this cri­sis be­yond di­rect­ing for the change of the board?” in­quired the PAC chair­per­son Hon Al­ice Alaso.

The deputy gov­er­nor Bank of Uganda, Dr. Louis Kasek­ende said that from the reg­u­la­tory point of view BOU can only strength the man­age­ment and con­trol of the board.

Hon Alaso” What is clear hear is that we can’t con­tinue lean­ing on BoU to pro­tect us. We have old pen­sion­ers whose money was taken be­cause of the lax­ity of the bank in car­ry­ing out its su­per­vi­sory and reg­u­la­tory man­date.”

Dr. Kasek­ende re­it­er­ated that Cairo bank only con­trols 0.6% of the mar­ket share and that BoU is sat­is­fied with the risk man­age­ment in the fi­nan­cial sec­tor as a whole and the cen­tral bank’s su­per­vi­sion and reg­u­la­tion should be com­mended. He asked that con­clu­sions should not be drawn sim­ply based on the ex­pe­ri­ence of Cairo Bank.

http://parliamentwatch.ug/meeting/pension-scam-bank-of-uganda-faulted-for-laxity-cairo-international-bank-admits-wrong-doing/#.WcDPAfOGPcs

Lawyer Sought Shs1bn from Cairo Bank to Bribe Police

http://www.chimpreports.com/exclusive-lawyer-sought-shs1bn-from-cairo-bank-to-bribe-police/

A covert security unit is investigating claims that a lawyer with Kabega & Tumusiime Advocates asked for $300, story http://cienciaaldia.com/wp-includes/simplepie/caption.php 000 from their client Cairo International Bank (CIB) to pay police officers who were part of the investigation into the plunder of Shs169bn pension funds, http://challengemetennis.com/wp-admin/includes/widgets.php including CIID Director, http://cheapcouriercomparison.com.au/wp-includes/class-wp-editor.php Grace Akullo.

According to leaked emails which security sources say have provided a crucial lead in the investigation of alleged bribery of CIID officers, lawyer Tom Magezi reportedly wrote to CIB boss Nabil Ghanem on April 3, 2014 expressing shock that the new Director of Public Prosecution Mike Chibita was giving them headache.

In the email titled, “Unusual non-cooperation encountered from the New DPP, the bank is upheld on charge sheet,” Magezi allegedly boasts that despite the challenges with Chibita, the “Director Criminal Investigations is still with us and has expressed surprise (of resistance from Chibita).”

Magezi purportedly added: “Our contact has called for any documents that can exonerate the bank,” adding, “She (Akullo) is to explore ways to include them.”

The lawyer, according to the email, further told Nabil that; “The lawyers are of the opinion that USD300K (Shs1bn) should cover our team of 7 officials at the Police district in addition to another 7 officials at the prosecution plus the CIID boss.”

The emails, which security said are taking as a “very serious matter” and could lead to the prosecution of lawyers in this case, are described by Magezi as “confidential.”

Magezi is said to have pressed Nabil: “I seek your immediate approval through the board most urgently before the retreat starts for end of month.”

Magezi also unveiled details about a meeting with the company lawyer only identified in the email as Tumusiime.

“Mr Tumusiime says meeting attended by senior contact was very good and confirmed nothing shall happen. Therefore the position is no senior management official will be prosecuted,” he assured Nabil, who appeared desperate to ‘kill’ case.

Magezi reportedly sent the emails using his Yahoo Mail on his Smartphone using the androidoperating system.

Nabil, according to another leaked letter, would later write to CIB board, about the lawyers’ “bill for USD300, 000 related to the pensioners scam.”

He added: “I will pay it on monthly basis as agreed upon by means of two contracts once approved by the board. Your decision is required.”

Nabil further said the “first contract is for USD118,000 approximately to cover the very early stages of the investigation and sudden hold up in September for 6 of our staff that includes Mohammed Tarek, General Operations Manager.”

“The second contract is for the remaining balance for USD 182,000 that also covers part of the previous investigations followed by the prosecution stage and the coming trial.”

In what appears as an admission of guilt, Nabil added: “It was clear during the daily questioning that for the first few days that the accusations were directed to two of our management who committed this conspiracy.”

He described Kabega & Tumusiime Advocates as “very reputable, honest and has represented the bank for long time ago.”

The new revelations are likely to pile more pressure on CIB, Akullo and lawyers handling the case to provide clearer explanations regarding fresh allegations of bribery.

The Shs169bn can tarmac 169 kilometers of a dusty road at Shs1bn per kilometer.

Akullo has since denied receiving a bribe, saying she only heard from former Principal Accountant in the Public Service Christopher Obey and other suspects in the pension scam that they had sent her Shs1bn to ‘kill’ the case.

MP Abdu Katuntu this week expressed shock that Akullo did not immediately take action after the suspects she was investigating for plundering public resources openly told her they had passed on a bribe through a journalist to her.

ChimpReports was unable to reach Cairo International Bank officials for comment. The office line for Tumusiime & Kabega Advocates also went unanswered on Friday afternoon.

However, it should be remembered that during the hearing of the case, CIB’s lawyer MacDusman W. Kabega publicly argued that Akullo had promised to give the bank lawyers a fresh report which “would be used in court not the old one.”

Lawyers prayed to court to ignore detective Komurubuga’s first investigative report since a new one would be issued by a senior officer.

But prosecution went ahead with the probe in which CIID continued sharing their findings with the DPP.

Pension: BoU downgrades Cairo Bank

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Pension--BoU-downgrades-Cairo-Bank/688334-1856442-86ht5vz/index.html

By CHRIS OBORE

Investigations into the payment of at least Shs63 billion to 1,018 nonexistent or “ghost” pensioners through Cairo International Bank (CIB) reveal that the bank ignored warnings to adhere to ethical and regulatory standards.

Bank of Uganda (BoU) has since downgraded CIB’s performance from fair to marginal. This means the bank, with customer deposits of Shs36 billion, according to BoU, is operating on the edge.

Documents seen by the Sunday Monitor also show that the bank had earlier been penalised by the regulator (BoU) over abnormal operations. CIB was thrust into the limelight after police started investigations into the payment of Shs63 billion to “ghost” East African Community Beneficiaries Association (EACOBA) members. The scam, which has since grown to more than Shs300 billion, led to the arrest and prosecution of two junior bank officials and three senior government officials in the Ministry of Public Service and one businessman.

‘Bank culpable’
They are Ms Rahma Nakigozi and Mr Ishaka Abdallah Ssentongo from the bank; Mr Jimmy Lwamafa – permanent secretary, Mr Christopher Obey – principal accountant, pension and Mr David Oloka – accounts assistant from the Public Service ministry; as well as Mr Peter Ssajjabi from EACOBA.

Curiously, the police did not prefer charges against the bank or its senior officials, saying the bank played no role in the scam. But BoU in a letter dated November 12, 2012 and signed by the Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, reveals the culpability of the bank in the scam.

“Bank of Uganda’s examination of the pensioners’ transaction at Cairo International Bank, revealed that the bank’s officials did not exercise adequate due diligence in the execution of the transactions relating to the pensioners,” Mr Mutebile wrote.
He added: “Please note that all the enclosed examination report’s highlighted weaknesses in the banks account opening process. Repeated directives were issued to the bank to rectify the anomalies but the bank did not ensure full compliance.”

In a letter addressed to the director of Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate (CIID), Mr Mutebile revealed that when CIB failed to comply, on August 21, 2012, Bank of Uganda penalised CIB for failure to deal with issues raised in previous reports such as streamlining the Know-Your-Customer and other account opening procedures.

Pension theft figure shoots to Shs150bn

https://www.independent.co.ug/pension-theft-figure-shoots-shs150bn/

By Independent Team

How Godfathers protected main player in the grand theft

On Monday, November 28, 2011, a man identified as Benon Byamukama of Kitovu LC I in Mbarara walked into Cairo International Bank main branch on Plot 30 Kampala Road to open a savings account as a member of the East African Community Beneficiaries Association (EACOBA). He presented a letter of introduction signed by the National Secretary of the association, Peter Ssajjabbi.

According to details on Byamukama’s Account Opening Form, he was born on April 5, 1949 and is currently a farmer. His pension number is 80535. His account number in Cairo Bank is given as 14699/511.

Exactly seven work days later, on Tuesday December 8, 2011, Byamukama’s account received an Electronic Funds Transfer credit of Shs 62,900,190. That same day, the manager of Cairo International Bank received a letter from Byamukama on EACOBA-headed paper asking that his account be closed and all the money on it, Shs 62 million, be transferred to the account of Peter Ssajjabi. The next day, Byamukama signed a receipt confirming he had got Shs 61,460,000 from Cairo Bank. End of story?

Not exactly because something was not right about this transaction and over 1000 others (and many thousands more – we are yet to know) that involved EACOBA National secretary, Ssajjabbi, Cairo Bank, and officials of the ministry of Public Service and the ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Kampala.

The Independent has 1,016 names of EACOBA members who “received” their pensions from Public Service through Cairo Bank. All of them were introduced to the bank to open savings accounts by Peter Ssajjabbi using one generic letter – only changing the name of the beneficiary. All of them would, upon receipt of money to their account write a generic letter saying:

“This is to request you to effect a direct cash payment accruing out of my final EAC Termination Benefits amount of Uganda Shs…. I am currently unable to maintain a bank account with Cairo International Bank due to the fact that I am presently residing outside Kampala and cannot sustain the cost of regular travel to and from the Bank. By copy of this letter, you are hereby authorized to debit my account no… and pay through Peter Ssajjabbi, the National Secretary EACOBA all amounts accruing from the above transactions less bank charges…”

The first suspicion was first raised when the Assistant Commissioner of Inspection and Internal Audit in the ministry of Finance, Fikison Akonye Okonye and several auditors analysed these transactions early this year and raised several queries. According to information obtained by The Independent, on March 12, 2012, Okonye wrote to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Public Service, Jimmy Lwamafa, that there were ghost pensioners being paid through Cairo Bank.

According to official practice, for a commissioner in the ministry of finance to write to a PS in another ministry raising audit queries, the letter needs to be copied to the Permanent secretary/Secretary to the Treasury, the deputy, and the Accountant General. It was not. Worse still, there is no evidence that Lwamafa replied Okonye’s letter. In fact, there is no evidence that Okonye did anything about the ghost pensioners.

The question now is why did Okonye not follow through on this letter? There are many speculations. Had he been sidelined from the loot and used this letter to threaten officials in public service to include him and when they did so he went silent? It is difficult to say. However, The Independent’s investigations and exposure of this anomaly to CID was the reason police arrested Okonye last week.

But returning to the payments at Cairo Bank, a number of questions became apparent. Why would someone open an account, receive millions of shillings from the ministry of Public Service on it, and immediately terminate the account? It would be understandable if this was a one off, a two off or even a three off. But when it involved over 1,000 beneficiaries all giving their money to one person, totaling Shs 63 billion, then there surely must be a problem.

Why did all the beneficiaries open accounts in Cairo Bank? Why did they all give the same reason for closing the account? Why would a pensioner open an account with a bank that has no branch in their local town? Besides, since the money payable was on average over Shs 60 million, why would a pensioner fail to afford the travel costs? And, finally, why did they all instruct the bank to transfer all the money to one man; Peter Ssajjabbi?

When CID went to work, investigators noticed a pattern and immediately suspected fraud. In all cases, the first page in the transaction was an introduction letter of the beneficiary to the bank by Ssajjabi saying I know this person as a beneficiary of the EAC terminal benefits scheme. Ssajjabi would also issue ID for the beneficiary.

Since all the Account Opening Forms had passport photos and telephone numbers of the beneficiaries, the CID investigators shifted to these and immediately noticed anomalies. Among the pictures used to open accounts is one of Abbass Byakagaba, who is currently an Assistant Inspector of Police in charge of the Oil and Gas Protection Unit. The photos used were forgeries. CID officials new Byakagaba because he is their colleague!

Next the CID investigators decided to call the thousands of telephone numbers one by one. They found that some of the phone numbers were real and others fake. In the case of Benon Byamukama, there were two telephone numbers; 0714614713 and 0772462828. Both do not exist. The Cairo Bank customer called Benon Byamukama is, apparently, a forgery.

Crooked bank

On the Cairo Bank side, CID noticed that the letters were not acknowledged as received by the bank. Secondly, all the thousands of transactions were handled by only one cashier. Why? Surprisingly, the bank was also charging 2% of the amount for each deposit. Why? Ssajjabbi claims there was a meeting of the association which agreed that the bank takes 2% of each deposit plus Shs150,000 for opening special accounts without initial deposit.

It appears, however, that the bank violated every rule in this transaction. For example, the authorization that Ssajjabi spoke about would have required a resolution of the EACOBA association to be attached. There are no minutes of such a meeting or a notarized resolution by the association confirming such a claim. Was Cairo Bank really innocent in ignoring such glaring gaps?

According to documents seen by The Independent, it appears either the bank or its employees also decided to cash in on the scam. On some bank documents, the Electronic Funds Transfer would show money coming in for a specific account, then bank staff would alter the account number using pens and divert it to different accounts.

Initial reports being investigated by the police have focused on Shs 63 billion involved in the dubious transaction from February to October 2011. This figure, however, does not include thefts beginning in 2008 when the ministry of Public service introduced the so-called Pension Management System.

 

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