NSSF vows more punitive action as manager is jailed five years, ordered to refund shs152m over fraud

The High Court in Kampala has jailed  Joseph  Sooka, a former employee of the National Social Security Fund, to five years in prison for fraudulently withdrawing over shs152m from the Fund’s suspense account.

Sooka was a relationship manager and between May 2017 and July 2019 intentionally transferred shs152million from various bank accounts that he had opened in names of fictitious claimants to his personal accounts.

The NSSF handed him over to police in October 2019 for prosecution after an internal investigatio established suspicious withdraws he had fraudulently processed over time.

The Fund’s Internal Audit Department in October 2019 established that Sooka had presented fictitious claim documents that he used to access monies of the unsuspecting members between May 2017 and July 2019.

Justice Margaret Tibulya consequently convicted Sooka of  embezzlement, forgery, money luadering and uttering of false documents.

“All the monies released on account of the false claims was credited to the (bank) accounts controlled by the accused,” Justice Tibulya said.

She sentenced Sooka to five years imprisonment as well as being ordered to refund the sshs152 million that he stole.

He was also  banned from assuming any positions in public offices for a period of ten years.

Commenting about the matter, Barbara Arimi, the NSSF head of marketing and corporate affairs said the case demonstrated the Fund’s zero tolerance to fraud.

“We are committed to protecting our members’ savings at all costs and have put in place several security checks to prevent fraud especially from the suspense account,”Arimi said.

“The Fund has since put in place initiatives to mitigate the growth of balances on the suspense account. These initiatives include the e-collections portal which makes it impossible for employers to remit without complete employee information, publication of suspense in different media platforms as well as field engagements aimed at tracing members on the suspense account.”

Arimi said the Fund has fully integrated with NIRA to enable the registration of members, and that  this has significantly reduced the amount of incoming suspense.

“The bulk of the suspense relates to historical periods. Once all efforts to clear suspense are exhausted, we will publish all pending suspense and have it moved to the reserve as per provisions of the NSSF Act (as amended).”