Trade unions petition Speaker over NSSF report

The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, chairs the plenary at Parliament yesterday. PHOTO | DAVID LUBOWA

What you need to know:

  • Mr Mwine Mpaka’s committee, in its conclusion, recommended that the entire 12th NSSF board be disbanded and a new one instituted.

The different workers unions under the National Organisation of Trade Unions (Notu) have petitioned the Speaker of the Parliament, Ms Anita Among, over what they said is a flawed committee recommendation that the current board be disbanded following the investigations into the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) scandal.

The petitioners said the recommendation to disband the current board is ill-conceived because all the saga that happened took place under the previous boards and the current board cannot be punished for mistakes it never took part in.

“This conclusion by the Committee on the performance of the Board is unfair. This current Board has been in office for one year, it started on with the implementation of the amended Act wherein one of the deliverables was the Midterm Access. The Board has ably delivered on this mandate and Uganda has become a benchmarking destination because of this new product,” the petitioners state.

Mr Mwine Mpaka’s committee, in its conclusion, recommended that the entire 12th NSSF board be disbanded and a new one instituted.

“… the Board has failed on several occasions … to ensure that there is secure, profitable and effective financial management of the Fund for the benefit of the workers in particular and the country at large as stipulated in Section 4 of NSSF Act (general functions and duties of the Board),” the Committee noted.

“The Committee, therefore, recommends that the 12th NSSF Board be dissolved by the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Betty Amongi Ongom, with immediate effect and a new Board constituted,” the Committee further recommended.

We were unable to get an explanation on how the petition will be handled since the main issue had already been debated in Parliament and the recommendations adopted with amendments.

Mr Hassan Lwabayi Mudiba, the secretary general of Uganda Local Government Workers’ Union, yesterday said the recommendations of Parliament are implemented by the executive and other government bodies.