Missing Records Slow Uganda’s Scrutiny of Shs140bn HABA Comfort Letter

The officials who could explain a Shs140 billion assurance linked to HABA Group have left the institutions involved, and Uganda’s Finance Ministry is still searching for the records. That is the obstacle Finance Minister Henry Musasizi has put before lawmakers seeking answers about an instruction to the Bank of Uganda, according to Nile Post Uganda (direct). The unresolved question is whether the arrangement left the government or central bank with any financial obligation.

Musasizi has asked Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises, known as COSASE, to postpone its examination of the matter. The committee is reviewing a 2017 instruction for the central bank to issue a letter of comfort worth Shs140 billion in relation to HABA Group. Such a letter offers reassurance that a borrower or transaction will receive financial or institutional support. It is not automatically equivalent to a binding guarantee.

An old transaction, a search for answers

In a letter dated October 6, 2026, Musasizi apologised for missing a committee meeting scheduled for October 1. He also argued that ministers do not appear before accountability committees unless the issues involve them personally. The planned meeting concerned findings in the Auditor General’s report on the Bank of Uganda for the audit year ended December 31, 2025. Those findings included questions about the instruction concerning HABA Group’s letter of comfort.

Although the instruction under review dates from 2017, Musasizi said the underlying issues reach back to June 2010. His ministry needs to find and assemble historical documents before it can give an informed response, he told the committee. That makes the search for records a necessary step in explaining the transaction: the ministry says it needs those files to establish what happened before answering the audit queries.

Musasizi said officials with institutional knowledge had left, requiring the ministry to consult other offices to establish what happened.

The minister said his team was approaching various offices because people familiar with the events were no longer at the relevant institutions. He requested additional time both to retrieve the paperwork and to consult those involved in the transactions. He has assigned technical officers to prepare the information and attend the committee meeting to answer the Auditor General’s concerns, rather than offering a substantive explanation in his request for a postponement.

The financial stakes remain unresolved

COSASE wants to establish why the Bank of Uganda was instructed to issue the assurance, who approved the arrangement and whether it created financial exposure for either the state or the central bank. The Shs140 billion figure is the stated value of the letter of comfort; the account does not establish that this amount became a government payment obligation. A comfort letter’s legal effect depends on its wording and the circumstances in which it was issued.

Musasizi copied his request to the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, HABA Group Limited’s chairperson, the deputy chairperson of PAC-COSASE and the Clerk to Parliament. The next step is for COSASE to set a new meeting date with the ministry’s technical team. What matters then is whether the recovered documents and consultations can explain the authorisation and clarify any financial obligation arising from the arrangement.