Leader of opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga has paid tribute to former central Bank of Uganda (BoU) governor Prof Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, highlighting three instances when the economist make President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni ‘uncomfortable’ with his truth
Mutebile died in Nairobi at the weekend. (Read story here, and a related one there).
A vigil was held at his Kololo residence on January 26.
On January 27, a special sitting of Parliament was held to pay tribute to Mutebile.
But the body of the former BoU governor was not brought to Parliament as expected. (Read story here).
During the special sitting, Mpuuga, also the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP, showered Mutebile with praises, including for his honesty.
“The late Mutebile was an honest leader who didn’t fear talking straight which sometimes made the powers that be, so uncomfortable,” said Mpuuga before detailing “three distinct occasions when he stood his ground and mentioned what made his appointing authority so uncomfortable.”
I recall when in 2011, he disagreed with President Museveni over the decision to spend $740 million on six fighter jets. At the time, this payment led to a rundown of the stock of our foreign reserves from 6 to 4 months of import cover.
The Ministry of Defense, under President Museveni’s directive, and a watchful eye of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in a single transaction, withdrew $400 million (1st payment) overnight from BoU to pay for the fighter jets without parliamentary approval.
Since that time, the competitiveness of our shilling has never been regained as the import cover has never risen up to five months. The Governor informed this Parliament how he reluctantly accepted to release hundreds of millions of dollars after assurances and an informal agreement with the Finance Minister and the President that in about 2 years, proceeds from oil revenue would be used to repay the BoU loan. This is the history of the BoU recapitalization that this Parliament has been making since 2017/18.
Mr. Tumusiime-Mutebile without fear attributed the Inflation and exchange rate depreciation of 2011 to the election cash bonanza in which NRM and its leadership literally broke into the central bank in order to buy votes.
After KACITA, the City traders Association, closing shops for weeks in a strike that traders were protesting against the escalating dollar price, Governor Mutebile admitted that this money was “used for electioneering” and plunged “the economy into chaos.”
The third incident is when the Governor stood his ground and resisted a plan by the Executive to award an exclusive contract to print Uganda Currency to Veridos Identity Solutions GMBH, a company without any history of currency printing.
The Governor resisted the President, Minister responsible for Finance as well as Attorney General on a deal that would most like have created a risk of the public’s lack of faith in our country’s currency as a store of value.
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