Alleged Tullow bribery accounts do not exist, IGP reportedly tells Parliament

Accounts allegedly used by oil giant Tullow to bribe government officials do not exist, the Inspector General of Police has told Parliament.

Briefing the Ugandan parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating the oil industry, police head Major General Kale Kayihura said the transactions, which Western Youth MP Gerald Karuhanga had claimed were made, weren't conducted.

 “Our preliminary findings confirmed that the alleged transactions mentioned in the source documents were never made and that the alleged accounts of Tullow Oil PLC in the Bank of Valleta, Malta, East Africa Development Limited (EADL) and EFG Eurobank, Ergasius, London, UK do not exist,” General Kayihura said.

But he said police hadn't yet been able to determine whether a bank account allegedly belonging to the Minister of Internal Affairs Hilary Onek at the Emirates Bank in Dubai existed or not, the Daily Monitor reported.

“The committee will recall that the UAE authorities had demanded that we re-submit our request for information and also fulfill certain technical procedures which we have done before they could release the information," the Monitor quoted Major General Kayihura as saying.

"So far we have not received any response from the authorities in Dubai."

Nor have police established any link between the EADL and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa, or evidence of transactions between EADL and Bank of Valleta.