The Bank of Uganda (BOU) has clarified that incidents of fraud which resulted into the loss of UGX62BN did not happen within their jurisdiction and it is therefore not true that their IT systems were hacked as it had been widely reported.
In the latest communication, the Central Bank Acting Governor, Michael Atingi-Ego, ruled out compromise on the BOU IT systems saying what happened was a fraudulent payment initiated outside the Central Bank.
“Our systems are uncompromised and secure. The BoU systems were never hacked. Two incidents of fraud were initiated outside the BoU IT systems. Instructions were received by BoU to pay the wrong beneficiaries, leading to the diversion of funds” Deputy BOU Governor, Michael Atingi-Ego clarified at a press briefing on Thursday.
Mr Atingi-Ego also reported that no staff from the Bank of Uganda has been implicated in the missing billions as security organs intensify investigations into what has been widely regarded as a money heist.
Initial reports did not rule out collusion with BOU staff to facilitate a breach on BOU firewalls. In a statement issued by BOU this week, the management expressed readiness to cooperate with investigating agencies to bring out the truth. Atingi-Ego also spoke about the efforts by BOU management which resulted into recovery of part of the missing billions.
“We have since recovered $8.205m of these funds though and we are pursuing the balance. The ongoing investigation will support recovery efforts,” Atingi-Ego added.
