City hall, KCAA headquarters
Lawmakers on the Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) have criticized officials from Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) for failing to remit Shs4.107Bn, deducted from staff salaries to Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) as Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and retirement savings to National Social Security Fund (NSSF).
In the December 2022 Auditor General report, there was concern raised that KCCA made statutory deductions amounting to Shs4.107, yet the funds weren’t remitted to the respective institutions.
Details from the Office of the Auditor General highlighted that KCCA deducted PAYE to a tune of Shs2.597Bn meant to go to URA, Withholding Tax Shs17,211,198 and Shs1.492Bn to NSSF.
Donny Katebire, Acting Director Treasury Services at KCCA acknowledged the failure to remit the said funds to the responsible agencies, but attributed delays of remittances especially among casual labourers at the Authority on the failure of the said group who delayed to register with KCCA adding that the individuals who finalized registration had their funds remitted to KCCA and there have been exchanges of phone calls between the Authority with NSSF and URA.
However, Joel Ssenyonyi, Chairperson COSASE rejected assertions that such sensitive issues have been handled through phone calls with no documentary evidence to back up KCCA claims.
He said, “The major concern is that these statutory deductions. The workers savings aren’t catered for, you told us you have been engaging URA and NSSF. Your response here, you only engaged through phone calls, there is nothing documented. In other words, this response you have given isn’t sufficient, it doesn’t make the cut. In other words, these are statutory deductions, when you don’t remit this money, you are committing an illegality besides the fact that for the case of NSSF, you are causing your staff to lose out on interest. An illegality isn’t dealt just by a phone call. Because URA at times gives waivers but it doesn’t do it through phone calls. We aren’t buying this explanation.”
Katebire clarified noting, “They haven’t give us a waiver, you know we receive money on a quarterly basis, so whenever we get, we pay. So there is no waiver from either NSSF and URA, when they call, we tell them we are going to pay that is why they haven’t been harsh on us because we have been committed to paying of these outstanding arrears.”
The development comes at the time Lord Mayor while appearing before COSASE decried the failure by KCCA to remit staff savings, revealing the walk of shame he made to NSSF to withdraw his midterm access funds, but he was denied funds because of the failure by his employer to remit his savings.
“It is shocking I went to NSSF to take benefit of the law you people passed, they said you haven’t saved for 10years, I said but I have been in KCCA since 2011, so they checked and said you are short of savings by 24months. Only to cross check and saw there were several months that haven’t been remitted and so many staff are suffering because of this,” said Lukwago.
The Lord Mayor said even the casual workers like sweepers recently staged a protest over the failure by KCCA to remit their savings to KCCA.
