NSSF denies stealing from its members
By George Murumba
23rd April 2012:
The National Social Security Fund [NSSF] has denied being involved in the theft of its members’ savings, following allegations to that effect in the media. In a statement published on the organisation’s website, NSSF said it has put in place measures to reduce suspense as the Fund works with Employers to locate owners of the unallocated funds, Managing Director Richard Byarugaba has said.
Recent press reports said that the Fund could have underpaid member benefits, or ‘stealing’ member contributions. However, Byarugaba explained that the money held in a suspense account are those funds that have not been allocated to member accounts.
“Therefore, contrary to media insinuations, holding unallocated funds neither means that NSSF is underpaying benefits, nor that NSSF is stealing the funds. It is common financial practice that money that has not been posted to a final account can be placed into a temporary account, normally, referred to as a suspense account. This is common with Banks and any quasi financial institutions like pension funds,” Byarugaba said.
He explained that the suspense mentioned in the Auditor General’s report relates to the privatisation exercise carried out by the Privatisation Unit (PU) under the Public Enterprise Reform and Divesture Act (Cap 98), (PERD Act) which had to wind up, merge and dispose of some government entities in the 1990’s.
Eventually, the Privatisation Unit had to pay NSSF contributions on behalf of workers, but did not provide schedules as required as many of the companies, such as Coffee Marketing Board, wound up. This category accounts for Shs20 billion out of the Shs28billion pending in the suspense account.
Click NSSF Clarification on Suspense for a detailed explanation. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
