arliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has agreed to resume its inquiry into the Shs140.4 billion Bank of Uganda liability involving HABA Group after Finance Minister Henry Musasizi apologised for failing to appear before the committee.
The committee had suspended its proceedings last week after Musasizi failed to attend a meeting scheduled for October 1, despite having earlier requested that date for his appearance. The minister had also not communicated to the committee why he would not attend.
His absence triggered a standoff within COSASE, with some MPs proposing that the minister be censured, while others argued that he should first be given an opportunity to explain why he failed to appear.
The committee subsequently held an internal meeting on Tuesday to decide how to proceed.
COSASE chairperson Muwada Nkunyingi said the committee received a letter from Musasizi apologising for his absence as members were meeting to decide their next step.
“We received a letter from Minister Musasizi this morning as we sat to deliberate on our next course of action. We agreed that we accept the letter and allow the minister to appear as he stated,” Nkunyingi told journalists.
Musasizi, in a letter dated October 6, apologised for failing to attend the October 1 meeting and asked for more time to prepare his response.
He explained that the matters under investigation date back to June 2010 and that the Ministry of Finance needed time to retrieve documents and consult officials with knowledge of the transactions.
The minister said he had assigned technical officers to prepare the necessary information before his appearance before the committee.
Nkunyingi said the committee would invite Musasizi together with Bank of Uganda and HABA Group for a joint interface to clarify the circumstances surrounding the disputed liability.
“We shall write to all parties and invite them, probably this week, to have an interface,” Nkunyingi said.
The committee wants Musasizi to explain the role of the Ministry of Finance in a 2017 arrangement under which Bank of Uganda issued a letter of comfort linked to HABA Group.
Bank of Uganda told COSASE that the arrangement was made following an instruction from the Ministry of Finance. The central bank has said it is seeking to recover about Shs140.487 billion linked to the arrangement.
However, businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba, who owns HABA Group, has disputed the amount cited by Bank of Uganda.
When he appeared before COSASE in September, Basajjabalaba told MPs that the government owed him about Shs168.8 billion, creating further questions for the committee about how the liability arose and how the figures were reached.
The committee had earlier invited Musasizi, Bank of Uganda Governor Michael Atingi-Ego and representatives of HABA Group to help reconcile the different accounts surrounding the transaction.
The disagreement over Musasizi’s absence had temporarily halted other COSASE business as MPs debated whether his failure to appear amounted to contempt of Parliament.
