Retirement benefits board should resign, workers demand

The workers say some board members positioned themselves to rip off pensioners benefits.

Workers, under their chairman have asked the finance ministry to dissolve the current board of directors that was recently instituted to steer the establishment of the Uganda Retirements Benefits Regulatory Authority, saying its appointment was unlawful.

In a telephone interview with Daily Monitor yesterday, Mr Wilson Owere, the chairman of the National Organisation for Trade Unions (Notu) said the current board members positioned themselves to defraud savers when the pension reforms finally take off.

“The appointment of the board was faulty (sic) because those people had positioned themselves strategically to defraud the pension. We foresaw this coming, it’s just a matter of time,” Mr Owere said.

Mr Owere’s request follows the arrest of Mr Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa, the commissioner for pensions in the Ministry of Public Service, to help police with investigations into the ongoing pensions rip-off scandal where at least Shs63 billion is said to have been stolen from public coffers by officials who set up accounts for ‘ghost’ pensioners.

Mr Kunsa was on August 31, appointed member on the board together with Dr Robert M. Okello – a director Lyciar Limited, Ms Rosemary Ssenabulya – executive director Federation of Uganda Employers, Ms Christine Guwatudde Kintu – permanent secretary at Ministry of Gender and Mr Keith Muhakanizi – deputy secretary to the Treasury, according to Mr Moses Bekabye.
The board is chaired by Mr Andrew Derrick Lwanga Kasirye of Kasirye Byarugaba and Company advocates.

Ms Ssenabulya, however, dismissed the allegations as unfounded and baseless. The board is charged with establishing the Uganda Retirements Benefits Regulatory Authority to regulate the pension sector through opening provision of pension services in order to end NSSF’s monopoly.

Mr Bekabye, the chairman of the taskforce on the liberalisation process, who also doubles as the technical advisor in the Ministry of Finance said he couldn’t comment on Mr Kunsa’s fate since the matter was now before court and still under investigation.