NSSF Managing Director, Patrick Ayota has defended his appointment by the Minister for Gender, Betty Amongi saying he is qualified for the job, asking court to throw out the accusations by his predecessor, Richard Byarugaba.
Byarugaba was allowed to amend his case to include Ayota whom he said his appointed as NSSF boss is illegal since it was intended to defeat his earlier case against Minister Amongi.
He said that the appointment of Ayota as the substantive Managing Director for NSSF was unlawful and contravened the spirit of the National Social Security Fund Act.
However, in his response filed before the High Court on Thursday, Ayota said he was appointed as the NSSF Managing Director by the minister owing to his stellar performance as the deputy Managing Director.
“I have all the requisite competences and work experience to serve NSSF as its Managing Director as determined and confirmed by the board before recommending me to the minister for appointment. My appointment was done lawfully, is valid, and was not done to defeat the present application for judicial review as alleged or at all,” Ayota says.
He notes that court should not grant the request by Byarugaba to thrown him out of office as the NSSF Managing Director since such a decision would put the Fund into limbo without a substantive accounting officer to safeguard members' savings.
“It would be against public interest for the Fund to be without strategic leadership which would have catastrophic ramifications for the Fund and would I expose members' savings amounting to over shs18 trillion to risks of misuse and stagnation in growth,”Ayota says.
Disgruntled Byarugaba
In his response to the requests by Byaugaba, NSSF Managing Director, Patrick Ayota says it is in interest of justice, fairness and equity that the application be dismissed .
“The exercise of this court's discretion and the interests of justice favour the stability of the Fund as opposed to the unmeritorious cries of a single disgruntled person whose recommendation for appointment was rejected based on sound, legal, and cogent reasons,” he says.
Ayota notes that the interests of justice for the entire countrywide membership of the Fund override any purported interest that the Byarugaba believes he has in a leadership position that he was found unfit to occupy.
The case
In July, Byarugaba dragged the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development Betty Amongi to court for not renewing his contract at NSSF.
In the suit filed before the Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala, Amongi was sued jointly with the Attorney General and Byarugaba contends that having served NSSF for two terms, before the end of the second one, the minister tried to end it prematurely through a letter in which she claimed he ought to have left office for having clocked the mandatory 60 years age of retirement.
Byarugaba said whereas the NSSF board of directors basing on the fund’s exciting performance during his two terms and the need to complete the 10 year strategic plan for the NSSF for stable continuity recommended for his contract renewal, Among refused.
He said minister Amongi deferred his reappointment by raising various unknown and undisclosed allegations about him including financial impropriety, collusion with contractors, defiance of presidential directives, misrepresentation of facts among others , noting that she assumed the role of his primary accuser since she didn’t disclose any identifiable source of the said allegations.
In his amended case, Byarugaba was allowed to include Ayota who was appointed as the new NSSF Managing Director while the case was still in court.
He says the appointment was done to defeat his earlier case against the minister.
Orders
Byarugaba wants court to issue an order quashing the recommendation by the NSSF board of directors dated August, 17 ,2023 to minister Amongi in regards the appointment of Ayota as the substantive Managing Director for a period of five years.
He says that before appointment, Ayota was holding a statutory position as NSSF Deputy Managing Director on a fixed five year term which renders him ineligible for appointment as Managing Director.
He also wants court to quash minister Amongi’s letter appointing Ayota as the substantive NSSF Managing Director , a position he is not eligible to be appointed and is not entitled to act.
