KAMPALA – Parliament granted leave of the house to Micheal Mawanda (Igara East) to table a private members bill seeking to make amendments to the constitution on the Central Bank, a move that is likely to see Bank of Uganda Governor, Emmanuel Mutebile’s powers trimmed.
This follows notice, Hon. Mawanda issued to Parliament of his plans to present a motion in which he wanted to be granted leave to bring the bill after 90 days in which the executive had promised to table the bill expired.
Mawanda says the bill also intends to scrap all the powers of Governor of Bank Uganda from being the chairperson of the Board BOU which makes him decided on tough decisions affecting for the Board of BOU and his motion was seconded by Jonathan Odur (Erute South).
Mawanda said, “We have a situation where the Governor who is the Chief Executive Officer is at the same time the Chairman Board of Directors. The budget is made by top management headed by the Governor and the budget is approved by the Board which is headed by the Governor. So if there is a mistake made by management and carried to the board which is headed by the same person, we shall not be able to rectify that problem.”
“All these stories we have heard it is because there is no second eye at the management of Bank of Uganda, that is why we are coming up with this bill that the separation of powers takes place in Bank of Uganda where the Governor becomes the head of the Central Bank and independent person be appointed to help the board which can oversee the operations of the Central Bank,” added Mawanda.
It should be recalled that Parliament gave the Executive 90 days within which to table the amendments to the Bank of Uganda Act as well as the constitution to streamline the business at the Central Bank as recommended in the report by the Committee of Commissions Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises that highlighted flaws in the Central Bank regulations.
