Lwamafa faces hard time in pension trial

Mr Lwamafa (2nd left) and Mr Obey (2nd right) at the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala recently. Photo by Michael Kakumirizi

Kampala- The former permanent secretary Ministry of Public Service, Mr Jimmy Lwamafa, who is on trial over plunder of Shs88b for pensioners, yesterday laboured in putting up a spirited defence against several corruption charges.

He is accused of arbitrarily including Shs88.2 billion meant for civil servants into the ministry’s budget as purported pension contribution to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) knowing that civil servants don’t contribute to NSSF.

Mr Lwamafa was the first suspect to step into the witness dock. He denied seeing the provision for NSSF contributions during the three budget preparatory meetings he attended for the financial years 2010/11 and 2011/12. The trial is conducted by the head of Anti Corruption Court, Justice Lawrence Gidudu.

The prosecution contends that Mr Lwamafa and his co-accused Mr Christopher Obey (former principal accountant) and Mr Stephen Kunsa Kiwanuka (former director for research and development) in the two aforementioned financial years irregularly budgeted for Shs88.2b as social security contributions well knowing that civil servants don’t make such contributions.
When his lawyer, Mr Evans Ochieng, asked Mr Lwamafa at what stage he learnt about the alleged irregular inclusion of the NSSF item in the budget for the two financial years, he said it was after the then permanent secretary for ministry of Finance and Secretary to the Treasury, the late Chris Kassami, had written to him raising a red flag about the anomaly and wanted an explanation.

Mr Lwamafa explained that upon consulting his junior technocrats including Mr Joses Tegyeza (the then assistant commissioner for policy and planning in the Ministry of Public Service), he wrote back to Mr Kassami, clarifying that the budgeting for the social security contributions had been done in error because the same funds had originally been budgeted for pension and gratuity.

His lawyer asked him why the NSSF item reappeared in the following financial year of 2011/12 and yet he had written to the Finance ministry in the previous year of how the same had been done in error. Mr Lwamafa explained that in the second financial year, he was on his way out of the ministry and that before he left office, no new red flag had been raised about the arbitrary budgeting of the NSSF item.

Half way through his defence, Justice Gidudu asked Mr Lwamafa to explain clearly why he was in court. Mr Lwamafa humbly retorted: “My lord, I don’t know..” prompting the courtroom to burst into laughter.

However, he went into a fix when he failed to convince court that the money in question did not end up in the hands of non-existing pensioners. Lwamafa laboured to defuse this allegation, but the judge told him: “...I don’t know what you have just said, your answers are vague. ”
At the conclusion of his defence yesterday, Mr Lwamafa said he and his co-accused did not hatch any plan to defraud the government of the Shs88.2bn as prosecution alleges. He asked court to acquit him of the charges.
The hearing continues today with Mr Kunsa entering the dock to make his defence.