Officials at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) were this morning put to task to explain why they have been deducting monies on staff salaries for NSSF, yet haven’t ben remitting the monies to the Fund.
Led by Deputy Executive Director, Sam Serunkuuma, the officials were this morning appearing before the Parliament Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) to respond to audit queries raised in the 2014/2015 Audit report.
This follows concerns raised by the Auditor General, John Muwanga who revealed that the Authority hasn’t been remitting staff savings to NSSF, with the debt hitting Shs1.47 billion.
Richard Lule, Director Administration and Human Resource told the Committee that the arrears accrued as a result of misinterpreting the NSSF Act on whether political heads, revenue officers, enforcement officers and casual workers were eligible to remit money to NSSF.Lule however assured the legislators that the monies have since been cleared, following the harmonization of the law.
However, his explanation fell on deaf ears, with MPs; Moses Kasibante (Lubaga North) and Michael Tusiime (Mbarara Municipality) were quick to raise questions on where the authority got the money to hurriedly remit the money to NSSF yet it has never been budgeted for.
KCCA’s Lule informed the committee that the funds had been availed in the subsequent budget and the five per cent that was meant to be paid by staff had been recovered from the employees.
However, it didn’t take long before Lule’s lies were laid bare when Tusiime tabled evidence before the committee that indicated that NSSF is demanding Shs7 billion from KCCA. This prompted the committee to put Lule on oath.
Having been pushed to the corner, Lule confessed his sins revealing that although KCCA paid the monies, the fund ordered the authority to pay the fine as a result of delaying to remit the funds in time.
It was then that Serunkuuma chipped in to save face, pledging to remit all outstanding arrears to NSSF by end of December 2017.
