BUWEMBO: In Uganda’s war against corruption, Mafabi fears that FIA fears the Mafia

In Kampala there is a new fear called FIA. The Financial Intelligence Authority came to town in 2013, but many started taking note of it only a couple of years ago when it froze bank accounts of several non-governmental organisations.

And last week it requisitioned information on bank accounts of 13 NGOs.

FIA’s mandate is fighting money laundering. Its inception was meant to be soon after 9/11, as was expected of all US allies. It took 12 years to enact Uganda’s anti-money laundering law and create the FIA, an elaborate structure that was worth the wait.

The law requires all accountable persons to register with the agency. But, as the FIA comes to public notice, the reactions are rather interesting.

One key observation by aggrieved persons is that it targets those NGOs that promote democracy, human rights and accountability.

Government people say FIA targets everyone, but as an investigative body, does not announce whom it is investigating.

The Associate Director of Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies, Godber Tumushabe is furious with the agency. 

Equally angry is opposition national legislator Nandala Mafabi, who has previously headed parliament accountability committees and currently chairs Uganda’s most effective co-operative union of Bugishu (in Eastern Uganda).

The two men think that the FIA fears the Mafia. Tumushabe has never forgiven the FIA for freezing NGO accounts alongside personal accounts of staff, including interns who were barely earning $100 a month.

Mafabi also accuses the FIA of fearing big money launderers yet it is terrorising harmless NGOs who promote accountability. The angry Mafabi cites examples that cowards like me cannot.

He wonders why the FIA did not investigate a Cabinet minister’s NGO that received $500,000 from a Chinese businessman who was charged and sentenced on pleading guilty in the United States over the same.

He also wonders why the FIA did not investigate a political party that wrote a letter to a group of businessmen that includes one whose bank was closed over gross misconduct, asking for donations, while it was in power.

He also faults the FIA for fearing to probe a director at the central bank, who was said to be richer than her wealth declarations.

He also thinks the FIA feared to unravel the mystery of a huge consignment of currency that recently arrived in the country aboard a plane with other private business merchandise and police intimated some of it was illegally printed.

Mafabi also alleges that the FIA is afraid of probing a trader who declared earnings from exporting cowhides which, according to him, numbered many times more than all the livestock in Uganda, a clear sign of money laundering.

At least going by Mafabi’s account, the FIA also fears some people.

But the FIA is not the first statutory authority to strike fear in suspects’ hearts in the past 33 years. The first was the Human Rights Commission of Inquiry instituted soon after the 1986 change of government.

Once powerful figures appeared before the commission, and the public could hardly believe seeing fear in the once feared men.

Then came the official ombudsman called Inspector General of Government who, though diminished in real power, was greatly feared in the years gone by.

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee was also once a force to be feared.

Right now, the most feared unit is the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, and the FIA seems to be challenging it for prominence.

But going by the trend, the fear of the FIA might not last long.