Minister Amongi defends self over NSSF saga as she makes case for shs6bn

The Gender and Labour Minister, Betty Amongi has for the first time commented about the  saga in which she was accused of  making an “irregular” request for shs6 billion from NSSF.

NOTU chairman, Usher Wilson Owere last month accused Amongi of writing a letter to then NSSF Managing Director, Richard Byarugaba requesting for shs6 billion to her office as minister.

She wrote that letter to the Managing Director .She justified her cause that she was going to account for these funds by ensuring compliance by members. When the MD(Byarugaba) refused to give the money, she conditioned that she would not renew her contract. Upon realizing that her aim was failing, she immediately requested workers centres to petition her office for corruption against the MD,”Owere told journalists.

He  said that when Byarugaba refused, the witch-hunt which has seen a delay in renewing his contract after clocking the mandatory 60 years retirement cap begun.

The contract for the NSSF deputy Managing Director, Patrick Ayota was renewed for another five years despite too having clocked the mandatory 60 years of age, a situation that Owere said shows double standards.

However, speaking on Wednesday, Minister Amongi avoided the controversy but explained the shs6 billion.

“The shs6 billion is money approved by the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development in the budget of NSSF. The law stipulates that the minister is the one to approve all the budget for NSSF and I did so in June by a letter and under the overall budget for NSSF, I approved shs220billion for operations and out of this, I indicated that allocate shs6 billion for activities to drive the implementation of the new law with target of expanding coverage and ensuring compliance,”Amongi said.

Amongi explained that everything was done within her mandate as the minister under whose docket that NSSF falls.

Makes case

The minister told journalists that the shs6 billion is meant to ensure increase in compliance and coverage of NSSF members.

She noted that in order to attain the strategic objectives of the amended NSSF Act, she  directed the board to propose key initiatives that would be implemented to expand coverage of social protection and enforce compliance.

“Our target is to increase coverage from the current 1.3 million members with balances in NSSF to 15 million by 2025 and through all this, some of the key questions that I wanted the Fund to consider leveraging ministries, departments and other government agencies to ensure compliance with the NSSF Act as amended.”

Amongi noted that that there is need to ensure the fund leverages Ugandans in diaspora are part of the social security network but also leverage  existing groups or associations in the informal sector, such as the markets, farmers, transport sector, and other communities to begin savings with the fund.

She said NSSF will establish an an online system for whistleblowers to report non-compliance by employers who deduct and do not remit employee’s contributions, drive mass registration of both eligible employers and employees considering that the new law is targeting 75% of the employment  categories that were originally not captured under the old law.

“These strategic initiatives had corresponding activities for which an allocation of shs6 billion was approved in the budget in June, 2022 and the work plan was reviewed in November, 2022. Therefore, I would like to demystify the ongoing misinformation that the shs6 billion budget I approved is appropriated under NSSF operation budget for 2022/2023 and activities mentioned are for NSSF and not my ministry,” Amongi said.

“These activities will be undertaken by the NSSF in partnership with relevant entities, be it government agencies or private sector players. The Ministry of Gender, Labour and  Social Development will only provide oversight, and support the fund in the implementation of these activities, in line with its legal mandate as the Ministry responsible for social security.”