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Retired officers default on Shs1.2b police Sacco loans
Chairperson of the Police Exodus Sacco Wilson Omoding. PHOTO/FILE
The police Sacco is demanding Shs1.2b from retired officers in form of unpaid loans.
The chairperson of the Police Exodus Sacco, Mr Wilson Omoding, said yesterday that they have written to the defaulting officers to repay their loan obligations or legal action will be taken against them.
“The non-performing loans are to a tune of Shs1.2b. We gave management instructions to follow up on those officers. They have reached some of them and some of them have started now responding to their loan obligations. There are those who retired. So we are reaching out to all these officers so that they can clear their loans,” Mr Omoding said.
However, he didn’t readily give the number of police officers who defaulted but promised to share the statistics later. The Sacco loans are automatically deducted from the officers’ salaries. But when officers retire, this repayments become difficult.
Most members of the police Sacco don’t put collateral as security for loans, but they get guarantors who are their fellow officers.
The Police Exodus Sacco, which has 42,000 members, held its ninth annual general meeting yesterday at police headquarters in Naguru, Kampala.
Turnaround
Mr Omoding said despite the challenges he found when he was elected chairperson, they have been able to turn the Sacco around in two years and members got dividends and interest on their savings to the tune of Shs1.7b.
Sacco members weren’t getting interest or dividend between 2007, when the cooperative was started, and 2019. This led to protests that prompted Inspector General of Police Martins Okoth-Ochola to institute an investigation in the mismanagement of the Sacco in 2019.
The Sacco manager was arrested and is currently battling corruption charges in court. The Sacco management was also changed in 2019.
Mr Omoding said when he took over leadership, they used to rely on overdrafts to get funds to give out as loans to the members.
The Sacco’s growth has since shot up.
In the 2021 annual report, the Sacco assets have risen by Shs14b to Shs46b in two years.
The Sacco treasurer, Mr Eddy Ssekanjako, said the net surplus before taxes rose from Shs90m in 2019 to Shs3b in 2021.
Mr Ssekanjako said the Sacco revenues have also increased to Shs6b in 2021 from Shs4.3b in 2020 while the members’ savings have increased from Shs20.7b in 2020 to Shs25.5b in 2021.
The Police Exodus Sacco canteen that was making losses in 2019 also made nearly Shs1.95b in two years.
The Police Director for Human Resource, Maj Gen Jesse Kamunanwire, said the changes in the leadership of the Sacco after incidents of financial abuses in 2019 brought in professional and technical leaders that inspired members.
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