Civil Society blames National Social Security Fund mismanagement on gaps in NSSF Act

The Civil Society Coalition on Social Security and Pension Reforms has blamed the gross financial mismanagement of National Social Security Fund cash that has been witnessed on a number of occasions on the gaps in the NSSF Act.

former NSSF boss David+Chandi-Jamwa (R) and his Deputy Prof. Mondo Kagonyera

This comes at a time when Parliament is carrying out investigations on audit queries raised in the Forensic NSSF audit report of the 2005- 2008 by the Auditor General which implicate a number of officials that were part of the former NSSF management for misappropriating huge amounts of the fund’s cash.

According to a policy brief of the coalition, it is asserted that the NSSF Act has a number of legal and policy gaps which have resulted in the continued mismanagement of the NSSF Act

The coalition says the Act unnecessarily marginalizes contributors from the fund’s management and in decision making which in a way contributes to the mismanagement of the funds of NSSF for example the law does not expressly provide for the representation of workers and employers on the board which governs the fund.

The coalition says the Act has no provision for separation of powers or independence of management from policy makers because the powers, roles and functions of policy makers and management are fused together which makes the fund’s management more susceptible to political patronage of policy makers like the supervising ministers.

The NSSF Act that was enacted in 1985 provides for the social security of employees of in the formal private sector by establishing the NSSF Act, its membership, the framework for making contribution payments into the fund and receiving beneficial payments out of the fund among other aspects relating to social security.

However in its present form contains a number of gaps that have culminated into governance challenges that are preventing NSSF contributors from receiving efficient and transparent service from the fund managers.

By Zacharia Tiberindwa, Ultimate Media