How a Bank of Uganda Director stole billions but still kept her Job

Outgoing Bank of Uganda Supervision director Justine Bagyenda is a wealthy woman. Bagyenda was sent into early retirement by Bank of Uganda Governor Tumusiime Mutebile recently, but she has “used” her position to amass wealth as her leaked bank accounts indicate she has close to Shs20billion.

Bagyenda who was set to retire in June was relieved of her duties prematurely by Mutebile and she sought the audience of President Museveni over the issue. Museveni reportedly told her BoU issues should be handled by BoU people.

So how did she keep her job?

“She was the director in charge of supervising commercial banks, so if she chose to look the other way in case of an anomaly, maybe she would be rewarded handsomely,” a source told us.

Concealing the money?

Despite the fact that Bagyenda is a wealthy woman, if she told you that she was broke, you would probably accept if she gave you the evidence of her account balance. Most of her accounts reflect a zero balance. You need thorough scrutiny to realize that these are just “clearing accounts” for her undisclosed source of funds that she goes on to move to other accounts shortly after they are deposited.

For example, by September 2017, she had only Shs48,000 on her shillings account, (no. 5106903903 Diamond Trust Bank),  but the same account had received over Shs10billion between February 2014 and September 2017.

Her dollar account (no. 5106903904) reflected a zero balance as of October 2017, but the same account had over $1m (about Shs3.5billion)  deposited on it from January 2014 to October 2017.

It is only her Barclays Bank account (no. 0341581400) that reflected a “healthy balance” of Shs98m by November 2017, but even this is “peanuts” considering Bagyenda’s vast wealth.