KAMPALA – The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is investigating several Bank of Uganda (BoU) officials amid allegations that some of them submitted records with wrong dates of birth.
The anomaly was discovered after some BoU sought clearance certificates from NSSF so as to renew their practising licences.
Mr David Mwesigwa Rwamatungi, the NSSF acting head of business, wrote to Mr Ralph Bakashabaruhanga, the BoU director of pension administration department, explaining that the Fund could not rush to issue the Central Bank with the mandatory clearance certificate until they had investigated the discrepancy in dates of birth.
“We understand the urgency of the situation, however, you will appreciate that we have to follow the due process of assessing an employer’s records to ensure compliance with NSSF before we can issue out a clearance certificate,” he wrote on March 6.
This website has learnt that NSSF has since established BoU paid out Shs1.6b to unidentified staff between August 2016 and January 2019, without remitting Shs246m worth of statutory contributions to NSSF.
NSSF has since instructed Mr Bakashabaruhanga, through his boss, the Governor [Mr Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile] to submit National Identify cards for the affected BoU staff to NSSF to “verify their correct age with the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA)”.
NSSF also pointed out other variances discovered for the six months assessed, which BoU’s finance department/ accounts team could not account for. The earnings unaccounted for stand at Shs1.6b, which created NSSF liability to a tune of Shs246m. BoU officials did not remit this money to NSSF as the law requires.
Section 7 (5) of the NSSF Act (Chapter 222) requires BoU and other employers applying for a business licence to produce a clearance certificate of up-to-date payments of due contributions issued by the managing director. And for the purposes of sub-section (5), business licence includes practising certificate for any profession.
Section 7 (7) of the same Act reads: “No employer of a class or description specified in an order made under subsection (1)(b) shall leave or attempt to leave Uganda, whether temporarily or permanently, unless he or she is in possession of a clearance certificate issued by the managing director.”
Previous probe
In November last year, the Inspector General of Government, Ms Irene Mulyagonja, also appointed a team of 200 officers to probe into the wealth of 100 BoU officials at the time when Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises, was concluding a three-month inquiry into the irregularities in the closure of seven commercial banks.
