Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) officials were on Wednesday grilled for deducting National Social Security Fund (NSSF) money on staff salaries without remitting it to the Fund.
The officials led by KCCA, Deputy Executive Director, Sam Serukuuma were appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) to respond to audit queries raised in the 2014/2015 Audit report.
The report by John Muwanga, the Auditor General reveals that KCCA has not been remitting staff savings to NSSF, with the debt hitting Shs1.47b.
However, during the proceedings, it was revealed that NSSF is demanding Shs7bn from KCCA.
Richard Lule, Director Administration & Human Resource at KCCA 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 noted that the Shs1.47b was a debt carried on from KCC before the Authority came into force. He added that the money has since been cleared following the harmonization of the law.
However, Lule’s didn’t go down well with the lawmakers, who raised questions on where the Authority got the money to hurriedly remit the money to NSSF yet it has never been budgeted for.
In response, Lule said that the funds had been availed in the subsequent budget and the 5% that was meant to be paid by staff had been recovered from the employees.
However, Michael Tusiime, the Mbarara Municipality MP tabled evidence before the Committee that indicated that NSSF is demanding Shs7bn from KCCA.
This prompted the lawmakers to make Lule take an oath.
It was at this point that Lule revealed that although they paid the money, NSSF ordered the them (KCCA) to pay the fine as a result of delaying to remit the funds.
The officials pledged to remit all outstanding arrears to the Fund by the end of December 2017.
