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NSSF saga: Leaked IGG report clears Byarugaba
Ex-NSSF Managing Director Richard Byarugaba. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- According to the report, all the 15 allegations of mismanagement, abuse of office and corruption against Mr Richard Byarugaba were false.
The Inspectorate of Government (IGG) has cleared the former Managing Director of National Social Security Fund (NSSF) of all corruption offences that had been put against him.
According to a draft report by the IGG, which this newspaper has seen, all the 15 allegations that covered mismanagement, abuse of office and corruption against Mr Richard Byarugaba were false.
In a complaint by one Akena to the IGG, she alleged that Mr Byarugaba exaggerated the Shs400b budget of purchasing the land in Nakigala, Wakiso District.
Efforts to verify the authenticity of the report from Ms Betty Kamya, the IGG, were futile. Our calls to her went unanswered.
The deputy IGG, Ms Anne Twinomugisha Muhairwe, last evening said her docket didn’t investigate the matter and had not seen the draft report.
There are other series of investigations into the management of the NSSF by Parliament and other government bodies.
The Parliament report on the mismanagement of the NSSF found incidences of mismanagement and recommended the resignation of the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development Betty Amongi, the dissolution of NSSF board and prosecution of former MD Byarugaba.
But the draft findings of the IGG indicate that the Shs400b was budgeted by NSSF to buy strategic land.
“This included land at Nakigalala, which was estimated at Shs250b and another piece of land located at Naguru belonging to the Uganda Police Force, estimated at Shs150b. It was not true that the former MD inflated the cost of the land at Nakigalala,” the IGG report indicated.
The complaint also alleged that during the leadership of Mr Byarugaba, the NSSF performance declined in four years and even the membership of the savers stagnated.
The IGG found out that the allegation was false.
“It was not true that the Fund’s performance had been declining. To the contrary, the performance was good and better than most service sector institutions such as commercial banks and insurance companies that registered slow growth and high cost income ratios of above 50 per cent between 2017 and 2022. It also performed better than NSSF Kenya. However, the Fund needs to improve in registering new members,” the report indicates.
The IGG cleared Mr Byarugaba of rejecting to scale up the registration of new members in the industrial parks, especially Kapeeka in Nakaseke District.
The IGG found out that NSSF registered 137 companies and 12,535 employees from industrial parks around the country. The employees contributed Shs1.9b monthly to the NSSF in 2022.
“There was no evidence to support the allegation that the MD rejected initiatives proposed by the Minister and other Government officials to scale up registration of new members in industrial parks,” IGG stated.
Mr Byarugaba was also accused of taking bribes and commission through waiving of NSSF contributions of workers of the Uganda Railways Corporation, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation and reducing penalties that were to be paid by Tororo Cement. The IGG investigators didn’t find any evidence of Mr Byarugaba soliciting bribes.
In another bribery allegations in the construction of apartments in Mbuya, Nakawa Division, the investigators said they couldn’t find evidence M/S CATIC Construction Ltd paid bribes to NSSF to influence the award of the contract worth Shs14.5b in February 2016.
The IGG cleared Mr Byarugaba of refusing to implement the proposal by the Gender minister and NSSF board in Financial Year 2022/23.
Mr Byarugaba was also unavailable for a comment by press time.
Background
When Mr Byarugaba’s contract expired on December 1, 2022, the Gender ministry overseen by Ms Betty Amongi declined to renew Mr Byarugaba’s contract following allegations of mismanagement of the workers’ fund, claims she directed the IGG to look into.
