Appeared in The Daily Monitor on 30 Jul 2013

Kampala

Three senior managers of the Uganda Development Bank Limited, including the chief executive officer were granted a Shs2m cash bail in a case in which they are accused of victimising a whistleblower.

Ms Patricia Ojangole appeared jointly with the bank’s director in-charge of management information systems, Mr Andrew Mulubya and Mr Daniel Kaggwa before Buganda Road Court Magistrate Julius Borore.

The trio appeared for plea in connection with alleged dismissal of a bank employee, a case that attracts a jail term of five years. According to Section 16 of the Whistleblower Protection Act, a person who either by himself or herself or through another person victimises a whistleblower for making a disclosure commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment not exceeding five years or a fine not exceeding one hundred and 20 currency points or both.

However, the trio denied the charges before they were granted bail upon a submission through their lawyers. Mr Borore granted them bail after depositing their passports, Shs2 million in cash and presenting two sureties each.

More involved

The court also issued criminal summons against two other bank officials, Mr Francis Ojede, the director of human resource and administration and the bank’s company secretary, Ms Juliet Nagawa Luggya.

Prosecution alleges that the group, being members of the executive committee of the UDBL mistreated a whistleblower, Ms Charlotte Mucunguzi.

According to the prosecution led by Mr Rogers Kinobe, the accused victimised Ms Mucunguzi for making a disclosure to the Inspectorate of Government about the improper manner in which the UDBL board headed by Dr Samuel Ssejjaka and management of UDBL was handling a $11.5 million (about Shs30b) loan application by Savannah Commodities Limited.

The company mainly deals in trading coffee and grains. It is alleged that the group dismissed Ms Mucunguzi, a decision taken at the UDBL extra ordinary executive committee meeting held on January 24.

The trio was arrested from the bank premises and taken to the Inspectorate of Government before they were produced in court.

UDBL has been in the eye of the storm recently following the sacking of the former management by the new board of directors led by Dr Ssejjaka. The board claims the sacked managers presided over the loss of more than Shs20b which was lent out as trade finance loans.

However, the managers claim ill-treatment by the board and have gone to court, demanding about Shs580m in terminal benefits.

ekasozi@ug.nationmedia.com