Amid standoff between National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Uganda Board and Deputy Managing Director Geraldine Ssali Busuulwa over her job, we have established that while acting as the Managing Director, the no nonsense lady performed excellently.
Records have it that performance by National Social Security Fund (NSSF) under deputy Managing Director, Ms Geraldine Ssali when she was the acting Managing Director is yet to be matched by any.
Amidst controversy surrounding the top management, board and deputy MD Ssali, her performance can’t be questioned because it was excellent.
The plot to force her out has been described as a continued victimization stance from last year when they miserably failed to get me her of her office. Our experts have called it corporate hooliganism, jealous and envy aka Chauvinism.
“Meanwhile, Fund performance when she was acting Managing Director has never been matched. So how a board that has only been there for two years concludes otherwise leaves us baffled! Never mind that the board has no powers to Hire/Fire. It’s simply a continued victimization stance from last year when they miserably failed to get her out of her office. Corporate hooliganism, jealous and Envy aka Chauvinism,” a source said.
OPINION: How did Geraldine Ssali’s stellar performance suddenly fall below par?
Firstly, you keep telling us how the board on which Byarugaba seats has sacked his deputy. But according to the NSSF Act, the power to appoint and disappoint rests with the Minister in charge of social security, who in this case, is the Minister of Finance since the
President moved NSSF from Labour to Finance. This very board of Byarugaba was clearly reminded by Justice Steven Musota last year that they acted outside the law in assuming powers and trying to suspend the DMD as she returned to work from the Maternity leave. Even at their recent AGM this month, the
Chairman was wailing about being unable to sack senior managers as part of the changes he would like to see in the NSSF Act amendments instead of discussing an actual wish list that would remove the bottlenecks in their investment activities. So for them to turn around and claim that they sacked is ” self defeatist” to say the least. Claiming victory too early. You will also recall that the previous board of Kyayonka made recommendations of Agaba and Ayota who came first in the interviews but the appointing authority who has the final say brought back Byarugaba and Ssali who both came third in the same interviews.
The 14% interest (not 15%) that Jamwa paid was out of unrealised gains – this was not sustainable for NSSF, that’s why they subsequently dropped it to about 4% in order to recover. The 13% that Ssali paid was out of purely realised gains. Hence the reason NSSF put aside the UGX 272 Billion surplus, which cushioned the poor returns in subsequent years. Therefore this assertion is valid.
Byarugaba has constantly and deceivingly lied that his deputy “sanctioned the Siphoning of money from from the Fund to UTL” – Which is total propaganda, sensationalism and unsophisticated dishonesty on the part of Byarugaba who cannot even lie in a straight line. Can anyone tell me if the letter below from Ssali is Sanctioning to Siphon money? Also see the advice of AG on the same. The competent Authority on the Issue is the AG and NOT Byarugaba! AG gave a legal Opinion which the Fund was bound to abide by. Byarugaba instead opted for a populist approach to challenge that position, at an even greater expense to the workers of UTL in terms of fees to Private Lawyers. The subsequent High court ruling by Justice Lydia Mugambe reaffirmed the same advice given by the AG, TWICE!
I know for a fact that even Byarugaba’s supervisor, Kasaija as Minister wrote to him instructing him to pay the money to UTL to save useless litigation costs and he stubbornly refused and continued with
Costly court battles and appeals to the detriment of workers savings.
So how does he convince us that this is a Ssali Issue? This was purely a legal issue beyond Ssali. Through the Corporation Secretary, she sought legal advice from the Attorney General and went ahead to administratively implement. Even the current CS, Wabwire sought the same advice from AG and was also told the same thing – consistent with the Advice that was given to Ssali. It’s even Ironic that the same CS,
Wabwire who misadvised the Fund on the issue and endorsed the contempt of court orders reinstating his boss, the DMD leading to costs of over Shs 300 M in damages was recommended for good performance – a classic case of rewarding incompetence.
Clearly, Byarugaba has run out of real excuses for continuously attempting and miserably failing to get rid of his deputy and has resorted to lies! Which means his reasons are personal as he assured
us before returning himself that he can never work with her again. Let him get used to the fact that Ssali is the DMD and move on with his life. The Fund will perform better with younger blood that has never been involved in any financial scandals like crashing banks!
The writer is Agaba Ronald Bills,
Team Leader Leadership Square Africa as well as an
Author/leadership speaker
