By Brenda Namugenyi.

The Speaker of parliament Anita Among, has directed the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Betty Amongi to present to the House a statement on the current status of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF).

NSSF, whose portfolio stands at Shs17.9 trillion has recently been marred with allegations of corruption and mismanagement of the workers’ funds.

Controversy rose to the limelight following demands to renew the contract of its former Managing Director, Richard Byarugaba despite clocking the mandatory retirement age of 60 yrs.

There have been allegations that Byarugaba’s contract could not be renewed because he declined to approve a 6bn request from Betty Amongi.

NOTU chairman Usher Wilson Owere alleged that Amongi wrote to Byarugaba to condition to her office a tube of UGX 6bn which she would account later.

Amongi rushed to renew the contract of the deputy managing director Patrick Ayoga who as well clocked the mandatory retirement age of 60yrs.

During the plenary sitting on Wednesday, 18 January 2023, Nakaseke central MP Allan Mayanja Ssebunya said further scrutiny is required.
“The bad publicity arising from the scandals, could discourage the potential voluntary savers. I concur with you that the ministers present a report or even the Committee for Gender gets interested in this matter,” he said.

Workers Representative, Hon. Margaret Rwabushaija noted that the Gender Committee failed to interface with Hon. Betty Amongi for a whole week in regards to the controversies in NSSF.

Speaker Among said there is need for both Ministers of Gender and Finance to assure workers that their savings remain safe amidst the controversies.

“We need to find out from the Ministers of Gender and Finance whether the savers’ money is safe. we need a report in this House by Thursday. Give us the status of savers’ money and tell us what the fight is about. We see a lot of fight on social media but we need to sort it out because it’s endangering the people’s savings. she said.

NSSF is under the joint supervision of the Ministry of Gender and the Ministry of Finance.