Parliament last evening adopted a report of its select committee into alleged mismanagement of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), upholding recommendations that line minister Betty Amongi resign, the Fund board be dissolved and former and current executives face prosecution.
The House approved proposals for monies irregularly paid to staff, Board members and workers’ unions be refunded variously within a week to 60 days.
In a lengthy session chaired by Speaker Anita Among, the lawmakers unanimously endorsed recommendations by the MP Mwine Mpaka-led committee for forensic and value-for-money audits by the Auditor General on all NSSF projects and procurements.
The House also asked the Ombudsman to conduct additional inquiries into probable nepotism in the hiring and deployment of Fund staff and abuse of office allegations including against Richard Byarugaba, the immediate past managing director.
Recommendations by the House are advisory and non-binding, although the Executive or tasked government agencies may implement some of the resolutions.
Amongi’s spirited fight to save her skin, including punching holes into parts of the committee findings and recommendations, fell on deaf ears, leading to MPs voting, despite her protestations, that she leave the Gender and Labour ministry job immediately.
The minister, however, agreed and applauded the committee’s other recommendations including the dissolution of the board and investigation of Mr Byarugaba alongside his successor Patrick Ayota with a view of possible prosecution for abuse of office, corruption and conspiracy to commit a felony.
In a defence spanning over four hours, Ms Amongi termed recommendations against her by the select committee that conducted a two-week probe into alleged mismanagement at Workers’ House as baseless and unsubstantiated. Her efforts to convince legislators to delete the call for her resignation, however, did not yield.
“I have been condemned with no evidence, facts and without reference to points of law. I am being victimised, yet I am the whistleblower. The committee has recommended a criminal offence against me … For such a crime to hold, you must prove beyond reasonable doubt. The committee ought to provide indisputable evidence against me,” she said.
Ms Amongi also questioned why the committee did not implicate the former supervisors at Finance under whom most of the mismanagement occurred.
“I started supervising NSSF last year (2022) in February. All the issues were done under the Ministry of Finance. Why didn’t the committee put any recommendations for the Ministry of Finance? How would I have prevented it when I was not supervising the Fund? To the contrary, it is my ministry [of Gender and Labour] that raised the red flags that led to investigations by the IGG, Auditor General and this parliament,” she said.
MP Mpaka (Mbarara City South, NRM), the committee chairperson, in a rejoinder to Ms Amongi’s allegations, defended that their recommendations were based on evidence.
Ms Amongi’s troubles stemmed from the contentious Shs6b that she allegedly varied the Fund budget to irregularly provision Shs6b for questionable expenditure. According to a June 16, 2022 letter, the Funds were to facilitate the implementation of provisions of the NSSF Amendment Act, 2021 including mobilisation, registration of workers, expanding collections of contributions and enforcing compliance.
She said she acted within the law, citing Section 29(3) of the NSSF Act, which gives the minister powers to approve or disapprove or vary the budget or approve it subject to such amendment as he or she may deem fit.
“There was no budget implementing the new law…we discussed with the [NSSF] Board and agreed to reduce the Shs15b wasteful expenditure on staff, and proposed reallocation of Shs6b … I was guiding the budget to an area of priority. None of that activity is for my ministry (of Gender), it is an activity to implement the NSSF Act, 2022. None of these activities has any personal benefit to me. For the committee to draw a conclusion that I made a directive is false,” she said.
She accused Mr Byarugaba of starting a smear campaign against her basing on the Shs6b. The former managing director was not available yesterday.
In comments to this publication shortly after the select committee tabled its report about a week ago, Mr Byarugaba said his hands were clean and welcomed any investigations, including an ongoing by the Inspectorate of Government, which he said would exonerate him.
He also said minister Amongi must answer since the committee recommended that she resign immediately and that a call by MPs for him to step aside immediately was redundant since he was no longer with the Fund.
Mr Byarugaba’s contract ran out on December 1, 2022, and the minister withheld her signature on a Board recommendation for his reappointment for a fresh five-year term, arguing that allegations levelled against him by a whistleblower be first investigated.
In the case of the questionable Shs1.8b allocated for corporate social responsibility, where Amongi was reportedly meant to receive Shs250m, the minister argued that she directed that the allocation be invested in what she called a savers’ SACCO. We were unable to establish what reference meant.
She accused Mr Byarugaba of varying the CSR allocation and using the funds to bribe members of the Board to approve his contract, where the chairperson, Mr Peter Kimbowa, was to get Shs250m. Shs800m was given to labour unions, Notu and Coftu, both represented on the Board of the workers’ Fund.
Responding to an inquiry by Butambala Woman MP Aisha Kabanda on why the contract of Mr Ayota was renewed as NSSF deputy managing director, and designated as acting managing director , while Mr Byarugaba’s was not, yet both men had clocked the retirement age and took impugned decisions at the Fund together.
In a rejoinder, Ms Amongi raised a litany of accusations against the former chief executive whom she said was complicit in the failure by some employers to remit NSSF contributions, which is why in her view he should keep away to allow for investigations uninterrupted.
“Opposition to open registrat
ion [of all workers] was to block open registration in Industrial Parks. Former MD (Byarugaba) has been protecting a number of companies which have been contributing less than 30 percent [of due contributions]. The [findings of the] ongoing investigation will shock many people,” she said.
Non-compliance, she said, has resulted in NSSF failing to collect about Shs200b.
