NSSF headquarters in Kampala
The Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) has revealed that the land title for Workers House that is being managed by National Social Security House (NSSF) on behalf of workers went missing after the American company holding onto the title closed business in Uganda.
The revelation was made by Martin Anthony Nsubuga, Executive Director of URBRA while appearing before Parliament’s Ad hoc Committee that is currently investigating reports of corruption and mismanagement of savers’ funds at NSSF, where he said that NSSF is now applying for a special title with the Land Registrar.
“During our inspection, we were able to identify that property 2 on Pilkington Road hosting Workers House has no title. We noted that the Land Registrar issued a notice for Alcon to return the title, Alcon didn’t comply with that notice. We are also aware that the Fund is following up with the land Registry to get the special title, but as we speak now, the title isn’t there,” said Nsubuga.
The revelation sent shockwaves among MPs like Mwine Mpaka (Mbarara South), who wondered how such a multi-billion property can exist without a land title remarking, “I think it is very shocking that Government built Workers House and we don’t even have a land title for the property we built a multi-billion structures. It is also shocking that Temangalo which we paid for very large sums of money there are still titles that haven’t been transferred to the Fund.”
The NSSF spent US$19M on the construction of Workers House construction by Roko Construction Limited on the 19-storey building and the building is also housing the headquarters of the Fund.
Daisy Linda Nabakooza, Director Supervision and Markets Conduct URBRA, further explained to the Committee that the physical certificate of the title isn’t with the Fund because there were issues regarding the construction with Alcon International, a company that was given the title as security, however when Alcon exited, they didn’t return that duplicate to NSSF.
“But NSSF has a copy of it, there are caveats on it for purposes of risk management. There is NSSF Caveat that no one can’t transact with that property except through NSSF,” said Nabakooza.
Rita Faith Nansasi, Director Legal Services informed MPs that while in the process of getting the caveat, the Fund said Alcon International wound up or can’t be traced and . in a bid to protect the property because this is member’s property, they went ahead to put the caveat.
“So there are two caveats on the title, one by Alcon and another by the Fund. And the Fund is in the process of applying for a special title, but it hasn’t been issued probably those are some of the challenges because it can’t be issued until you can’t find the original one and you can’t lift the caveat until you provide proof that you discharged the obligation that forced the Ministry of Lands to put such a caveat,” said Nansasi.
However, their explanations prompted more questions from lawmakers like Karim Masaba (Mbale Industrial Division) asking, “What do you mean we can’t trace Alcon, do you mean the company disappeared? We need to look deeper into the issue of Alcon and if you are saying they don’t exist, you mean they disappeared with our land title. So that is something I believe we should interact with NSSF, you might not be having proper information.”
The Committee also unearthed a number of governance and fraud cases in supervision reports conducted by URBRA on NSSF citing the case of Shs3.5Bn that disappeared with no trace, prompting the Committee Chairperson Mwine to task the Authority to appear again last next week to expound on the findings in their supervision reports.
