Embeera zobudde nokutawaana okufumba emmere:

23 February, 2019

By the World Media

Abakyala be Buganda nga basanyukira okufumbisa amayinja ga volcano.

The country of Uganda remembers the day of the People with Disabilities that is recognised all over the world:  

Togetherness. A PWD district councillor from Rukiga District, Mr Joseph Besigye (Right), aboard his fabricated tricycle at the International Day for the PWDs held in Nakaseke District on 3 December, 2018 Photo by Dan Wandera. 

Wano e Buganda, Amasannyalaze gasse abaana 3 e Kyengera:

Maama wabaana naye ali bubi nyo:

Abaana ababiri kubaana abasatu abafiridde ku wire za masanyalaze.

On the African Continent in modern times, It is trying to survive the terrible Congo's massacres: 'I climbed over bodies to flee'

14 December 2017

By the BBC 

The BBC's Africa editor Fergal Keane travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo's central Kasai region, a land littered with tears and mass graves.

Day by day the truth recedes from view. It is concealed by thick grasses. Only a few fragments of bone and shreds of cloth reach from the earth and demand attention.

"The blood is speaking," said "Papa" Isaac, a local translator with the UN in Tshimbulu town in the central Kasai region. He had brought us to the centre of a field where, he says, "the blood of my brothers is speaking".

Nobody knows how many bodies the army dumped here.

A woman working in a field nearby approached, curious at at the presence of UN soldiers. Her 12-year-old son was among those buried in the grave.

"The military were burying the bodies. We saw where they stopped and how they dug to bury the corpses… some were as young as 12," she sad.

"They did not only kill the militia. They killed innocent people."

Death and life-changing injuries haunt the people left behind

The violence began last spring when long-simmering resentment exploded into rebellion against a central government seen as remote and corrupt, whose police and army were feared for their brutality.

The spark was the refusal of the government to recognise a traditional chief, Kamina Nsapu, and the imposition of its own man.

In August the chief was killed by security forces, but his followers struck back, killing all whom they regarded as collaborators of the state.

In the fighting that followed, nearly 1.4 million people were displaced, among them around 850,000 children.

Kasai is now in the grip of a hunger crisis caused by the displacement of subsistence farmers who cannot plant crops to feed their families.

The Kasai road where everyone is hungry

In the two weeks we spent in Kasai, the consequences of violence were shockingly evident.

We saw it in the skeletal frames of malnourished children, the teeming crowds of women and children sheltering still in church buildings, and we heard the testimonies of those who had survived atrocities of immense cruelty.

There have been mass beheadings by militias. Villagers gunned down by soldiers.

A woman stripped, beaten, publicly raped and then beheaded because she was accused of treachery by the Kamina Nsapu militia. It forced her stepson to carry out the sexual assault.

• 'My husband was beheaded'
• Congo crisis 'worse than Syria or Iraq'
• The voodoo rebels taking on Kabila
• DR Congo jailings for mass child rape

A voter registration activist for elections due next year, Prosper Ntambue, became a target because he was regarded as a representative of the state.

His office was burned but he survived.

However, tragedy continued to stalk the family: his daughter and son-in-law were captured at a roadblock, taken away and beheaded.

Their crime? The son-in-law was an engineer who maintained roads for the government.

Mr Ntambue showed me a photograph of the couple's five children, taken when the family was still a family.

"Their children are orphaned and they have remained here. I take care of them now," he told me.

The state's response to the uprising was pitiless. The army and police turned their guns on militia members, often villagers armed with homemade weapons and wearing charms they believed would protect them from bullets. But civilians who had no link to the Kamina Nsapu were also killed.

In some areas the instability exposed ethnic rivalries, but it would be a grave mistake to characterise what took place as "ethnic" violence.

It was the violence of the poor and the alienated in a place where the state was anything but an impartial actor.

We spoke to numerous witnesses who described atrocities by the security forces and the Bana Mura militia, which supports the government. The witnesses asked us to protect their identities for fear of reprisal by the army.

By the side of the Kasai River in the town of Tshikapa a man pointed at the fast-flowing current. He was remembering the bodies toppling into the river to be swept away downstream.

"The military were taking people and throwing them into the river. People started to run away and hide. They followed them, killed them and threw them into the river," he said.

Sheltering in a church building, a mother told us how three of her four children were beheaded by the Bana Mura militia. She pleaded with the army to intervene but they did not stop the killers. Her mind is flooded with the imagery of a night of killing.

"I saw people with machetes, guns and clubs. They were beheading people, cutting arms and legs, slashing bellies. I had to climb over dead bodies to flee," she said.

Another mother told how she and her 15-year-old daughter were taken by the militia to separate farms.

The child who sat opposite us did not look more than 12. In a low monotone her mother recounted how she had been violated so many times she could not count.

"I only found that my daughter had been raped afterwards," she said. "There is great bitterness in my heart that my child has been defiled. She is just a kid."

The Location of the inhumane madness of African leaders doing the worst to their own fellow Africans.

 

In Kasai, only the UN stands between the people and exactions of the state and different militias. Unlike eastern DR Congo, the UN does not work alongside the army in Kasai. It is a stance that speaks loudly about the army's record.

But the UN is under pressure. It has fewer than 20,000 troops in a country two-thirds the size of western Europe.

Even this relatively small force is being cut back by 3,000 as the United States moves to reduce the costs of peacekeeping.

Not all of DR Congo is under threat of violence but besides Kasai there have been renewed outbreaks in the east, where 15 peacekeepers were killed last week, and in Tanganyika where hundreds of thousands are displaced.

I asked the UN's chief in Kasai, Charles Frisby, what could be achieved with so few troops? "Quite simply imagine what would happen if they were not here," he replied.

It is not a vista anybody who has recently visited Kasai would wish to contemplate. The region bristles with subdued violence. There is no real peace to keep in Kasai, only a daily effort to hold back the forces of chaos.

 

 

 

 

In Uganda again, another Pension scam has come out in the Ministry of Public Service:

Officials from the ministry of Public Service have failed to account for over Shs 23 billion in what is suspected to be another ghost scam

 

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 18 2016

The permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Catherine Musingwire (2ND LEFT) and the Director Human Resource, Adda Muwanga (LEFT)consult each other before the committee. PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA 

By Moses Kyeyune

Officials from the ministry of Public Service have failed to account for over Shs 23 billion in what is suspected to be another ghost scam.

While appearing before parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, the officials led by Ms Catherine Musingwiire, the Permanent Secretary failed to explain the money which was paid to pensioners beyond the lawful pensionable period of 15 years after retirement, between 2013 and 2015.

According the two reports by the Auditor General 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, the money, Shs 12.7 billion and Shs 11 billion respectively was paid to claimants without proof of life certificates.

“Absence of evidence of continued existence of pensioners in form of life certificates to support pension payments may imply payments to non-existent pensioners,” noted the Auditor General.

On the spot is Ms Grace Atepat, the Senior Accountant in Charge of Pension, Mr Laban Bulwa, the Senior Accountant in the ministry and the former acting Permanent Secretary, Ms Ada Muwanga.
Ms Musingwiire was saved from the mess since she was not yet in office during the troubled years of audit.

“I can only advise that this money be recovered or proof be provided justifying the payment,’ said Mr Mathias Mpuuga (DP-Masaka Municipality) who led the committee in probing the officials.

Section 18 (1) of the Pensions Act provides that, public servants are entitled to pension for a period 15 years, after which they are supposed to present annual “life certificates’ as evidence to claim their benefits.

However according to the reports a total of 17,593 received pension in the two years under mysterious circumstances.

Ms Atepat told the committee chaired by Vice, Gerald Karuhaga (Ntungamo Municipality-Ind) that the figures had been inflated by the Auditor General, claiming that he reconciled figure was shs. 5.2 billion shillings, while Ms Muwanga blamed the figures on the old pay roll, inherited from Christopher Obey.

“We decided to tackle the gratuities first and leave the monthly pension pay roll as it was, “she said
The two however failed to present supportive documents to back her claims.

Mr Cassiano Oketcha, the Senior Principal Auditor in the Office of the Auditor General convinced the committee that the findings were premised by information availed to auditors during the audit period
“The management letter that was issued at the time of exit indicated shs. 11 billion for 2014 while in 2013 it was Shs 12.7 billion,’ Oketcha said.

Mr Karuhanga warned that the officials risk joining their predecessors in jail unless they can account for the funds.
“I want to caution you, (Christopher) Obey was like you, don’t take the committee for granted,” he said.

Mr Mpuuga later told Daily Monitor that the scheme was well orchestrated to steal tax payers’ money.
“Our basic finding is that the cash bonanza in the ministry has not stopped and we can’t let this fictitious payment go unabated,” he said.

Mpuuga said that the several irregularities within the ministry indicated a broader web targeting pension funds.
“With these unscrupulous payments we can only conclude that this was fraud and we have no choice as PAC but to demand that they refund the money,” he said.

The committee also learnt that the ministry carried out multiple pension payment amounting to shs 1.2 billion approved by Mr Laban Bulwa, the Senior Accounting officer in the ministry.
Meanwhile, it was established that the ministry is still grappling with over shs 200 billion in arrears, out of which shs 199 billion is for gratuity and shs 108 billion is meant for pension.
Figures
2013-12.7 billion
2014-11 billion
14.7 bn mischarge
200bn Debt (199bn gratuity arrears +108.6bn pension arrears)
2.4 billion Multiple Payments.

 

Munsi ya Buganda, e Najjanankumbi, Abaana batuuse okuggwawo nga omuliro gwenyumba mwebasula gubatta. Amabujje 3 basirikkidde mu nyumba yabazadde:

By Musasi wa Bukedde

Added 12th November 2016

 

Nnaalongo Nakayima ne mutabani we, Bukenya eyasimattuse ate emabega y’ennyumba abaana abasatu mwe baggyiiridde. Ku ddyo ye mugenzi Frank Wasswa.

 

EKIKANGABWA kibuutikidde abatuuze b’e Najjanankubi Church Zooni ku luguudo lw’e Busaabala, abooluganda basatu okuli n’abalongo ab’emyka 3, bwe baasirikkidde mu nnyumba eyakutte omuliro mu kiro ekyakeesezza Olwokutaano.

 

Ennyumba eyakutte omuliro ya Nnaalongo ne Ssaalongo Edward Bukenya omuvuzi wa bodaboda ku luguudo lw’e Busaabala. Abaana baabwe okuli; Frank Wasswa, Mariam Nakato 3, ne William Kizza 2, be basirisse oluvannyuma lw’enju okukwata omuliro oguteeberezebwa okuva ku musubbaawa ogwalekeddwa mu nnyumba.

Maama w’abaana bano ategeezezza nti omuliro we gwakwatidde yabadde mu ffumbiro eriri mmita nga ssatu okuva ku nnyumba kyokka gwagenze okukwata ng’abaana bonna bali mu nnyumba era babiri be baasimattuse.

 

Ronnie Lubega, 7 yasimatusse n’ebisago eby’amaanyi nga kati ajjanjabibwa mu ddwaaliro ly’e Kiruddu - Mulago.

Ate Raymond Bukenya Kigongo yataasiddwa nnyina era teyafunye kisago kyonna. Nnaalongo Aidah Nakayima agamba nti yabadde mu ffumbiro ng’afumba kyaggulo ku ssaawa nga 3.00 ez’ekiro, n’alaba ekikka eky’amaanyi nga kikutte waggulu ku mabaati ate ng’abaana baasimula nga bwe bakuba emiranga.

Ekyaddiridde, muliro kubumbujja n’alaya enduulu eyaleese abatuuze kyokka baagenze okutuuka ng’abaana basatu bafudde. “Eggulo nasiibye nnumizibwa era Ssaalongo ye yafumbye ekyemisana kubanga teyakoze ku makya.

Yavudde awaka ku ssaawa 12 ez’akawungezi okugenda ku mulimu kyokka omuliro we gwakwatidde yabadde tannadda waka,’’ Nnaalongo bwe yategeezezza. Sarah Nsanja ow’abakyala w’ekyalo yagambye nti abatuuze bano tebabadde na buzibu na muntu yenna n’asaba abazirakisa okubadduukirira kubanga tebasigazza kantu konna.

Emirambo giri mu ddwaaliro e Mulago gye gigenda okuggyibwa gitwalibwe ku kyalo Buwama Ssango gye bagenda okuziika.

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Abange abazadde banaffe, ffenna tweyiwe ku Parliament etere esale ku bbeyi ye ttaala za masanyalaze. Government egyewo omusolo gwa solar kutabaza. Nga sibwekityo abalaba ebiriwo kubaana baffe bagamba nti olwobwavu abazadde tuli mulukwe lwakwokya abaana bave munsi okusinga okubonabona bwebati nga bali munsi yabwe.

Evelyn Mukeera behind her ramshackle mud and wattle hut. Photos by Owen Wagabaza

 

At 17 years, Evelyn Mukeera is already a mother of two and her third born is on the way. She was married off at 13 years by her father after failing to progress to Primary.5 in a number of attempts. “My mother had got a brain disorder and I was the one nursing her and taking care of the home, and with all these responsibilities, I could not concentrate in class,” Mukeera says. 

Unknown to Mukeera, her father and his neighbours were working behind doors to have their children marry each other. “Their first born had been struck by lightning and he died without a child. To avoid a similar scenario, they approached my father and requested him to marry me to their second born child who was 21 at the time,” Mukeera says.

The two parties agreed a fee of sh400,000 for Mukeera’s hand in marriage. The father was paid a deposit of sh300,000 and upto now, the balance of sh100,000 has never been paid. Mukeera says her father spent all the money on Waragi. “I would want to go back to school, but I’m worried my husband may not allow me,” Mukeera says.

For Monica Namugambe, her father chased her away after she got pregnant while in Senior.2. Namugambe says, her father Emmanuel Mbulate was not contributing in anyway to her education and this forced her into sexual relations with a boda boda rider who had promised to pay her fees as well as take care of her basic needs.

When she got pregnant, her father forced her into marriage with the bodaboda rider, despite his wife’s protests that the girl was still young for marriage.  Mbulate was paid sh300,000 as bride price out of the agreed sh500,000.

A revered drunkard, the man spent all the money on Waragi. “I think it was a blessing in disguise for him, because he had on many occasions prayed for the day I get married so that he gets his bride price when he is still alive,” Namugambe says.

Jimbo Jalia went with her sisters for an outing on Christmas day at Nabigando Town Council, because people were many, she lost contact with her sisters, on her way back home, she was waylaid by a gang of men who kidnapped her and took her to unidentified place.

The ringleader who in fact was her neighbour defiled her all week long, and when she was finally released, Jimbo had conceived. Though Jimbo’s parents had reported the case to police, they later withdrew it and rather opted to solve the case amicably. In the end, Jimbo was married off after the defiler paid sh700,000 to Jimbo’s parents.  “My father spent all the money in a bar,” she says, with eyes filled with tears.

Big problem

Mukeera, Namugambe and Jimbo are some of the hundreds of girls who have been married off at every tender age to their defilers by their parents.

A report titled the situational analysis of child poverty and deprivation in Uganda 2014, by UNICEF ranks Butaleja as the district with the highest concentration of child marriages in the country at 59%, a little higher than the national average of 57%.  

Felistars Koire, a nursing officer at Butaleja Health Centre III agrees that teenage pregnancy and child marriage are on rise in the district. According to Koire, more than 50% of the women who attend antenatal services in Butaleja Health Centre III are girls aged between 13 to 16 years.

“Each pregnancy poses great risks to a girl. It endangers her health. It takes psychological toll on her. Very often it forces her to leave school,” she said.

Nationally, according to the 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, one in four girls aged 15 to 19 is pregnant or has had a child. “Statistics further show that 50% of married women and those in union get married before their 18th birthday.

“Child marriage is a violation of the rights of girls and women. Girls who are married as children are more likely to be out of school, suffer domestic violence, contract HIV/AIDS and die due to complications during pregnancy and child birth,” the report says.

Dangers of marrying defilement victims to defilers.

Steven Langa, the Director of Family Life Network says child marriage robs a girl of her childhood, and imposes adult roles and responsibilities on her before she is physically, psychologically and emotionally prepared.

“It isolates girls from their friends and families and disempowers them to refuse sex or negotiate condom /family planning use, making them vulnerable to teenage pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Child marriage also denies girls the opportunity to get an education and fully develop their potential, keeping them and their future families in poverty,” Langa says.

 

Bakwatiddwa e Buganda lwa kusuza mwana mu kiyumba ky'embizzi

By John Bosco Mulyowa

Added 12th October 2016

Omwaana Nsubuga asuzibwa wamu ne mbizzi wano e Buganda. Kirabika tali trained kweyamba mu byobuyonjo!

POLIISI y'e Kaliisizo mu Rakai ekutte abafumbo n’ebaggalira lwa kusuza mwana Junior Nsubuga 10,  mu kiyumba ky’ebizzi.

Abakwatiddwa be: Francis Ssekikubo ne Margret Lukowe eyaliko Omumyuka wa Sipiika w’eggombolola y’e Kaliisizo Rural.

 Akulira ekitongole ekirwaanirira eddembe ly’abaana ku disitulikiti y'e Rakai Suzan Nakawojjwa yeyakuliddemu enteekateeka y’okubakwata

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Ekitongole ekirwanirira eddembe lyabaana munsi Uganda nakyo omulimu gwakirema dda. Anti government erabika tekiyamba nga bwekiri munsi nyingi. Welfare ya family kitongole kiramba ekya government nga bweriyo ekitongole kyokusoma kwa baana. Obwavu bwa bazadde yensibuko yokubonabona kwomwaana ono! Ate Military Police ya Uganda okusiba abazadde, ekisumuluzo kisulibwe mu nyanja Nalubaale, nakyo tekigya kumalawo kubonabona kwabaana ngabano mu nsi Uganda.

A children’s Bill has been introduced to restrict the adoption of Children in Uganda:

President Museveni of Uganda

In Uganda, Shs 8bn is needed to sustain the orphanages effectively:

Created: 01 June 2016

To close an estimated 30 illegal children’s homes countrywide, the ministry of gender, labor and social development requires about Shs 8bn. 

Kaboggoza Ssembatya, the assistant commissioner for children’s affairs, told URN last week that the money would be used to trace families and resettle the evicted children with their relatives and help establish an alternative care framework for totally-helpless orphans.

Last year, a ministry survey found that 80 percent of children in orphanages across the country have parents who can look after them. Kaboggoza said the Children (Amendment) Act, 2015 would help ensure that only quality orphanages and children homes come up.

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One would wish to know the cause of this loss of parents over their children. It seems it has all got to do with poverty that does not seem to go away! This is a Uganda government on the continent of Africa that has lost direction in international human social welfare policies.

Three former Ministry of Public Service officials accused of fraudulently budgeting Shs 88bn of pension money as National Social Security Fund (NSSF) pension contribution have a case to answer.

Justice Lawrence Gidudu made the ruling at the Anti-Corruption court this morning. The suspects are Jimmy Lwamafa, former permanent secretary, Christopher Obey, former principal accountant and Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa, former commissioner compensation department.

In his ruling, Justice Gidudu, said each of the suspects has a case to answer for their role in the pension scam.

Justice Gidudu noted that he had reviewed evidence contained in the testimonies of Keith Muhakanizi, permanent secretary and secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of finance, planning and economic development, Adah Muwanga, the former Acting accounting officer at Ministry of Public Service, Dr Christopher Makanga, an auditor from the Auditor General's Office, Accountant General Lawrence Semakula and considered this evidence vis-à-vis the accused's mandate as accounting officer, commissioner compensation and principal accountant.
 
“What comes out clearly is that pension funds like all public resources are budgeted for, defended, appropriated, requisitioned for, paid out and accounted by public officers within their mandate and schedule of duties,” said the Judge. He noted that, “Before payments are effected, internal verification processes are triggered to ensure that only genuine payments are made. This is intended to guard against misuse of public resources.”
 
He said in the budget cycle, Lwamafa as accounting officer and permanent secretary is constitutionally responsible for the proper accounting of ministry's funds as article 164 (1) demands.

“I was asked by the defense not to put Lwamafa on defense because he was acting on work processed by his junior technocrats had given him but in view of the above legal provision, I am unable to do so,” he said.
 
 He said although Shs 88bn was budgeted and requisitioned for as NSSF pension contribution, the body has never received those funds.

L-R: Christopher Obey, Stephen Kiwanuka and Jimmy Lwamafa from court cells going to the court room for the reading of the ruling in which court found that they had a case to answer in connection to Shs 88billion pension cash. Photo by Michael Kakumirizi

Justice Gidudu noted that prosecution tendered in a report that showed that those funds were disbursed to ‘ghosts’ in Cairo bank, the permanent secretary, he said must rise to the occasion of his office and explain, why he didn't discipline anybody for those errors as he is mandated to do.
 
“I accordingly find that the prosecution has established a prima facie case against each of the three gentlemen and I accordingly put them on defense…” ruled justice Gidudu.

The trio faces several corruption charges including; causing financial loss, abuse of office, corruption, false accounting, conspiracy to defraud to diversion of public resources. The charges are in connection to the alleged fraudulent budgeting of over Shs 88bn of civil servants' pension contribution to NSSF very well knowing that civil servants don't contribute to NSSF.
 
Soon after justice Gidudu delivered his ruling, he gave each of the suspects three options on how they should defend themselves. The first option was that they give un-sworn evidence and that with this option; the prosecution will not ask them questions and their respective lawyers will not guide them.
 
The second option was that they give a sworn-in evidence meaning that their lawyers will guide them and the prosecution will in turn ask them questions.  The last option was that the suspects can decide to keep quiet and leave court to decide their fate. In response, all the suspects briefed court that they would give their defense by taking oath.
 
This means that their lawyers will lead them and the prosecution lawyers will also ask them questions. The judge also asked the suspects if they will call witnesses to defend but all the three were not sure if they will call any witnesses. To that effect, the judge fixed May 18 and 19 as the dates the suspects will start their defense. They were returned to Luzira prison till those dates.

The famous Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi

 

One of Uganda’s biggest corruption court scandals ended on Friday, with three senior civil servants earning a combined 22 years in jail.

Some might argue the sentence was light if weighed against the stolen Shs 88bn, but Justice Lawrence Gidudu sentenced Jimmy Lwamafa (former public service permanent secretary) to seven years in prison; Christopher Obey (former principal accountant) got 10 years; and Steven Kunsa Kiwanuka (former director of research and development) got five years on top of the fact that the trio must also refund Shs 50bn to the government.

As DERRICK KIYONGA reports, Gidudu’s judgment gives insights into how corruption thrives. In essence, prosecutors argued that the three men colluded to sneak a total of Shs 88.2bn into the public service ministry budgets for 2010/2011 and 2011/2012. The money appeared as contributions to the National Social Security Fund, but it was never paid to NSSF.

Instead, it was withdrawn by the trio through Cairo International bank, using fictitious accounts. On the face of it, this was a clear illegality since, pensionable public servants do not contribute to NSSF. Hence, the ultimate question was, since there is an elaborate budgeting process, how could such colossal sums be processed for two financial years without detection. Such questions and many more were answered in Justice Gidudu’s 24-page judgement.

“This syndicate was crafted in the ministry of public service, modified in the ministry of finance, smoothened in Bank of Uganda and perfected in Cairo bank.”

The common thread of the accused’s defence was that the budgetary provisions for the two financial years were okay. Instead they squarely attributed the blame on Joses Tegyeza, the ministry’s assistant commissioner for planning responsible for uploading budget estimates into the Output Budgeting Tool (OBT).

The accused claimed that Tegyeza uploaded the money as if it was an NSSF item yet it was pensions and gratuity for teachers, traditional civil servants and veterans.

But that line of defence was broken down when Tegyeza who testified as the fifth prosecution witness said that his role in the ministry was to compile budgets from internal departments and upload them on the OBT. He said that he would provide drafts to the heads of departments to proof read and make any corrections.

He insisted Kunsa gave him the figures for social security contributions (NSSF) and even offered to defend that item in parliament if the need arose. Indeed, according to Justice Gidudu when Lwamafa and Kunsa appeared before parliament, they justified the item as social security contribution for scientists on contracts.

INCONSISTENCIES 

Justice Gidudu, who heads the Anti-Corruption court, pointed out that a look at the ministry’s work plan for financial year 2010/2011 shows that Shs 44.2bn had been allocated as pensions for teachers, traditional civil servants, UPDF, and local governments yet in the same document in the budget estimates at page 51, Shs 44.2bn is captured under code 212101 as social security contributions (NSSF).

Going forward, in the financial year 2011/2012, the work plans captured Shs 44.2bn as NSSF for scientists at page 95. In the same document, the budget estimates at page 50 captured Shs 44.2bn as social security contributions NSSF.

“In other words the ministerial policy statements for the two financial years by the ministry of public service show a mismatch between the work plans and the budget estimates,” Justice Gidudu ruled.

“It is strange that money should have been released at all on this item in view of this mismatch which seems not to have been captured in the various internal meetings held at the ministry of public service and later with the ministry of finance.”

FINANCE MINISTRY

Though none of the officials at the ministry finance were indicted, Justice Gidudu relied on the auditor general’s report to show their involvement. The auditor general’s findings were that the accused used to budget for the money as NSSF but ministry of finance officials would reclassify the same as gratuity and pension.

“The ministry of finance played the role of reclassifying the illegal budget item to hide this money under items such as gratuity for civil servants, teachers and veterans in order to make it appear lawful since the ministry of public service cannot budget money for NSSF legally,” noted Justice Gidudu.

According to the judge, John Muwanga, the Auditor general, faulted the desk officers at the ministry of finance for allowing the scam to happen. Muwanga noticed that money would be released irregularly without the director  of budget writing to the accountant general advising the availability of funds on each item, program and vote.

“The auditor general concluded that funds budgeted for as social security contributions [NSSF] were actually released on the pensions salary account in Bank of Uganda and spent as pensions, gratuity, and pension arrears instead of being paid to NSSF which was the budget item,” Justice Gidudu said, “According to the auditor general, these funds were expended on other items contrary to regulation 39 of the Public Finance and Accountability regulations 2003.”

INDISCIPLINE

Defence lawyers had used a letter written to parliament by the secretary to the treasury, Keith Muhakanizi, which had an effect of exonerating the accused from any wrongdoing.

In the letter, Muhakanizi told parliament that the questioned funds were released to the item with the right description on the Integrated Financial Management system (IFMS) namely 212101 social security contributions, which caters for gratuity as well for paying bonafide beneficiaries of pension and gratuity, and not to “ghosts”.

However, in his testimony in court, Muhakanizi stated that there was no need to budget for NSSF by ministry of public service because it was not one of the items the ministry is mandated to do.

Muhakanizi said that if one budgets for NSSF but ends up using that money to pay genuine pensioners then he/she could not have caused loss. He said that such a scenario is classified as “indiscipline”. He clarified that the letter was prepared for him by his director of budget, one Ocailap. Muhakanizi concluded that there were errors in the letter since the ministry of public service had no mandate to budget for social security contributions under code 212101.

The defence lawyers had asked the judge to let go of their clients on grounds that they couldn’t have accessed the money without the involvement of other officials since budgeting is such a long   process. Nevertheless, the judge was having none of it.

“I agree. This money was lost through a syndicate of fraudsters in the ministry of public service, finance and Cairo bank,”  Justice Gidudu ruled,“It is no defence to say the accomplices in the ministry of finance and Cairo bank are not in the dock. That is the discretion of the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions].”

dkiyonga@observer.ug

On planet earth, 300 million elderly people are not receiving long-term care:

Publish Date: Sep 29, 2015

The elderly of Uganda in community committee

meetings.

More than half the world's elderly lack access to long-term care, the International Labour Organization has said in a report, condemning the "deplorable" situation facing a rapidly ageing population.

A new report from the UN agency showed that some 300 million people over the age of 65 cannot easily access long-term care when needed.

Despite the ballooning need of the elderly for long-term care, Monday's report showed most countries were ignoring or under-prioritising their needs.

"This deplorable situation is reflected in the very low public LTC (long term care) expenditure, which amounts to less than 1.0 percent of GDP on average globally," study author Xenia Scheil-Adlung said in a statement.

The ILO report charged that "discrimination and negative attitudes towards older persons" were a big part of the problem.

"Ageism is a global phenomenon that is sometimes even laid down in regulations and legislation, for example higher costs or unfavourable conditions of certain insurance policies for older persons, or being refused for specific medical services due to age," it said.

Only 5.6 percent of the world's population lives in countries, including Germany and Japan, that provide universal long-term care.

A full 48 percent of the global population meanwhile is not protected by national legislation on long-term care, while another 46.3 percent are largely excluded from coverage due to narrow regulations that limit benefits to the poorest.

In Africa, more than 90 percent of the elderly have no access to long-term care when they need it.

But even the most "generous" countries, found in Europe, spend only two percent or less of their GDP on long-term care, the ILO report said.

This forces many older people living in even some of the world's richest countries to pay for up to 100 percent of their care from their own pockets.

"Persons in need should not face financial hardship and an increased risk of poverty due to the financial consequences of accessing care," the report said.

The study showed that the world would need 13.6 million more care workers to cover the needs of the elderly.

The current shortfall is largely made up for by unpaid female family members, who often are forced to reduce the time they spend at a paying job to care for elderly relatives, putting the entire family at risk of sliding into poverty, the report said.

The ILO study dismissed as "ageism" fears that care for the elderly is becoming unaffordable as populations grow older.

Instead of fretting over the cost of caring for the elderly, countries should realise it is in their own interest to expand long-term care, the report said, pointing especially to the job creation potential in the field.

With millions stolen and wasted on over 450 Members of Parliament, we can reduce their salaries to do somethng about our fellow human beings.

Please build homes for these people and help them.

Advanced by:

Bwanika Nakyesawa of Luwero.

17th October 2016

There are currently some efforts in Uganda to help all the old people financially:

The elderly line up to pick Shs25,000(£4.80p) each, every month, from the elderly

grant project in Kyankwanzi District.

While the money has benefited them, there are plans to phase out the project. PHOTO BY EPHRAIM KASOZI

BY EPHRAIM KASOZI 

Posted  Wednesday, August 12  2015 

IN SUMMARY

Since 2010, the elderly in 15 districts of Uganda have been receiving Shs25,000 every month as part of a programme to empower them. However, there are plans to phase it out.

M/S Ephrance Bukirwa walks out of her ramshackled house limping. Her left side is paralysed as a result of the injury she sustained after falling down.

She does not know her age but on observation, Ephrance Bukirwa’s body appears old and frail, and her hair is now grey with age. She cannot do any job for herself apart from making fire and keeping it burning while preparing food.

Bukirwa is being taken care of by her only surviving daughter, Rebecca Nalunkuuma, who stays about 300 metres away from her home and she cannot tell where the grandchildren are.

“I cannot dig nor collect food from the garden. I could even take months without sugar and even meat,” says Bukirwa, adding that her house is only good during the sunny season; “But when it rains, it is leaking and it used to be too cold for me until they bought me a blanket from my money.”

Bukirwa recalls that before the coming of senior citizens’ grant, she faced difficulty to access tablets during illnesses and shortage of food whenever a dry spell hit their area
The resident of Butemba Cell in Kyankwanzi District is one of the thousands of elder persons, who access the monthly grant of Shs25,000. Kyankwanzi is part of the cattle corridor that experiences dry spells leading to shortage of water and food.

However, due to her inability to walk, Bukirwa’s 67-year-older daughter Nalukuma, who is also a beneficiary of the same programme, collects the money for her.

“When she collects the money, I can now have sugar, meat, beans and porridge. I am also able to get tablets in time in case of any sickness,” smiles Bukirwa adding; “I have asked my daughter to start saving some of the money because I am looking forward to sleeping in a well roofed house.”

The programme
The Senior Citizens Grant, one of the core components of the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment, started in 2010 with financing by government and development partners. This was aimed at responding to the legal obligation of the state to provide welfare and maintenance for the aged.

Currently, the programme benefits 110,135 persons aged 65 and above in 15 districts and it is aimed at enhancing access to basic needs such as food security, better nutrition, health care and improving housing among others.

Janet Nakyanzi, 75, of Bukwili Cell, says apart from buying food, she saved the money to buy household utensils like basins and saucepans.

“I saved part of the money and I have since bought a pig,” says Nakyanzi who takes care of three grandchildren and her blind sister.

She narrates: “We no longer find problems to buy soap, sugar and I saved money which I used to buy bedsheets.”
Joseph Mugisha, the Social Protection and Advocacy Advisor at Help Age International says there is need to ensure that older persons live respectfully.

“We have now embarked on the campaign that would see political parties include social protection issues into their campaign programmes while canvassing for votes for the 2016 elections,” he says.

M/s Ephrance Bukirwa seated outside her home in Uganda

Mugisha says they want government to commit resources as a priority towards social protection to help older persons to live decent livelihoods because they are the bridge between the past and the future.

He explains that over Shs30b was expected the national rollout if the programme was to benefit 100 persons per sub-county but government has committed Shs9 billion in the current budget.
“This is not enough and yet the pilot arrangement had ended. We want government to find means of getting the money and prioritise the senior citizens grant with a view of enhancing the livelihoods of elderly,” adds Mugisha.

How they have been benefitting
Reports from the Ministry of Gender indicate that the senior citizens grant is increasing productive investment where 32 per cent of the beneficiaries use the money to buy small livestock or petty trading while 27 per cent of the beneficiaries invest their money in hiring additional labour for digging in their gardens.

“…Sixteen per cent of the beneficiaries report saving of their previous month’s payment. Savings were mainly to cover emergencies (20 per cent), to support productive investments (17 per cent), cultivation (15 per cent and meeting the education needs of children and or grandchildren taking 14 percent,” reads the report on expanding social protection programme for senior citizens grant.

According to the report, majority of the senior citizens grant beneficiaries spend the large part of their transfers on food leading to increased frequency, quantity and quality of meals eaten by beneficiary households.

“Senior Citizens Grant beneficiaries especially women consistently report improved participation in community affairs, sense of self-esteem and empowerment. Older people report feeling less discriminated against in their communities and more valued by their families on account of their ability to make social contributions to community- based social support mechanisms which are based on reciprocity like funerals and weddings,” reads the report.

ekasozi@ug.nationmedia.com

The Government of Uganda has finally thought about the Public service elderly. It has released Sh23bn for 60,000 public service pensioners. But no National Pension for the poor majority elderly of this country.
Publish Date: May 10, 2015

By David Lumu

KAMPALA, UGANDA - The Government has released sh23bn for 60,000 pensioners, ending the long wait that many have endured without money during the month of April.

According to Henry Kajura, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Service, the funds are expected to be wired to the pensioners’ bank accounts on Monday this week.

Kajura, who apologised for the delayed payment of the monthly pension to public service pensioners, said: “The ministry received sh23bn for this purpose (payment for April) on May 5, 2015, and has completed the necessary process. Funds are expected to be on individual accounts by Monday, May 11.”

Speaking to New Vision at the ministry’s headquarters in Wandegeya, Kampala, Sezi Mbaguta, the state minister for public service, said in February, the Government released sh37b to clear gratuity and pension arrears.

“These funds (sh37bn) have been paid out, except for the Ministry of Defence,” she said.

She said the defence ministry is “still validating” information of the accounts of the beneficiaries, adding that the ministry of public service needs sh133bn to clear all gratuity and pension arrears.

According to Ada Muwanga Kabarokole, the acting permanent secretary, the ministry has money to pay the 60,000 pensioners sh23bn every month up to June.

“The funds for the entire quarter have been processed,” she said.

However, Muwanga said that for gratuity and pension arrears, the delay was mainly caused by lack of proper records to facilitate the payment process, inadequate funding and the reform in the Government payment system. 

The Government introduced the integrated personnel and payroll payment system following the payment of over sh160b to ghost benefi ciaries in 2013.

Former Ministry of Public Service permanent secretary Jimmy Lwamafa, the principal accountant, Christopher Obey, commissioner pensions Stephen Kiwanuka-Kunsa and other staff were interdicted and arraigned before the Anti-Corruption court. But the case was recently dismissed.

Muwanga attributed the delay in pension payment on the clinical approach to the new payment system.

“As we change the payment system, we are bound to face some challenges,” she said.

Pensioners speak out Emmanuel Ajedra, 63, worked in a number of ministries, until 1992 when he retired.

'Important money'

Speaking to New Vision from Arua, Ajedra said: “We are wondering whether there are no old men and women in the public service ministry. Senior retired citizens used to be paid by 15th of the month, but these days, there are so many delays. Why can’t these people respect us?”

 However, Ajedra thanked the Government for releasing their April pension.

“That small money is important to us. Timely payment is so paramount to us because we don’t want to beg from our children.”

George Ssemakula, 63, who worked as health inspector, concurred. “Last month, I checked, but there was nothing.

“If the Government has released the money, then it is good news. We always get the money, but it delays. If the Government can work on the delays, we shall be grateful.

 “That is the money we, the old people, bank on to settle a number of things, including debts,” he said.
 

UGANDA:  BUKADDE MAGEZI FFENNA TUKULAKULANE ASSOCIATION.

Ebigendererwa okutukirizibwa mu kibiina kino:

Okulaba nga obuvunanyizibwa bwe ddembe lyonna eryabantu bannansi abakadde litukirizibwa Okusobola okutukiriza obuntu-bulamu obwa bantu.

Okuvumirira okujjawo nokwanjala ensonga zonnna ezireeta okutwala mumaaso obulumi nokwonona eddembe lya bantu abakadde.

Okuyingirira nokuyamba abantu abakadde munsonga zabwe bwezibeera mu kooti za mateeka, mumalwaliro oba mukulabirirwa, mubulema ne mumakomera nga basibiddwa.

Okufuba okumanyisa nokukutiira banansi ne governmenti zonna okutwala obuvunanyizibwa bwe wabawo okwonona eddembe lyabantu abakadde.

Okuyita nobuvumu wabewo ekitekwa okukolebwa ekyamanyi okulongosa embera nokugikuuma nga nnungamu, eya Bantu Abakadde. Ensonga eno oluvanyuma yejja okukuuma abantu bonna abensi eno nokuberawo kwabwe.

Okuwa amagezi kukisanidde okukolebwa okutekawo okukolagana nensi zonna endala. Okutekamu amanyi kubuli nsonda zonna ezisoboka munsi yonna.

Okunyumya kwa Member:

Nze nga omu kubanange mukibiina kino njagala okukubira omulanga abantu ba Uganda ate ne Buganda okweyunira ekibiina kino okubeera ba member be kibiina kino.

Tofayo obanga oli muvubuka atanaba kuyitibwa mukadde. Kino ekibiina kikwetaga. Tuwulidde nti omukulembeze wa Uganda ye tayagala kuyitibwa mukadde ate nga emyaka gye egyobukadde gyatuuka dda. Munsi zebweru nyingi obukadde butandika ku myaka 50. Ekirese obuzibu munsi zino kwekusanga nga kifuse kizibu okulabirira abakadde abeyongedde okuba abangi mpozzi nokusinga abavubuka abakozi. Kubanga era okutuka okukaddiwa otekwa okuba nga obadde okola nga era welabirira nga abavubuka nabo bwebakola oluvanyuma notuuka emyaka emizibu nga tokyasobola kwelabirira ekimala. Wano mu nsi yaffe Uganda tugambe nti omukadde yabeera ne myaka 70 nokweyongerayo? Yo governmenti ya Uganda evuddeyo negamba nti eyagala kuyamba omukadde naye ate omukulembeze ye nagamba nti omukadde asobola okukola nokwelabirira nga naye bwakola ku myaka gyaliko 70. Kakati no nga ebizibu byaffe ffenna abantu abazaalibwa, netwavula, netutambula, netuyiga amagezi agokwebezawo munsi eno, ate oluvanyuma netukaddiwa nokufa netufa, netufuuka ekintu ekirala(afudde). Ekibiina kino mukijjumbire. Tukolaganire wamu. Tujja kufuna enkola etusanidde mumagezi gaffe okulaba nga tutwaliriza obulamu bwaffe mukuwangala. Omutonzi atuwa buwi kirabo kya bulamu munsi eno obanga tuli bato, bavubuka, bakulu oba bakadde.

Mwebale nyo kumpa kukiseera kyammwe okusoma website yaffe eno.

Nze muganda wammwe,

Paul,

Owekika kye nkima, wano mu nsi Buganda, eya Uganda.

Nyama ntono okayana ekuli munkwawa! Mwebale omukwano ogwo banyabo ba Buganda nabazadde mwenna. 

Abakadde be Buganda

English translation:

 A member's conversation:

As one of the members in this association, I wish to recommend all the people to join this association so that we can work together in the development of the various projects under this organization.

It does not matter whether you are very young or you are an energetic youth. Your membership is very much required. Recently we heard from the President of Uganda that he does not want to be branded an old man.  

That is very unfortunate but in many countries old age starts at 50 years old. Presently in most countries these days, there are many old age citizens probably much more than the youth of working age. That is why it is becoming ever difficult for most governments in their various capacities to assist the elderly of these countries.

The elderly have been young of recent and had been working hard for themselves to look after their lives and that of their families until they have sunccumbed to the inevitable problems of old age.

In this country, old age is jokingly taken as 70 years old and the government of the day seems to have come out to say that old people are able to work for themselves as it is with so many of the government officials who are past the age of 70 years old and are busy working well for the government.

As life goes on by in a life circle, and one is a baby, and then one learns to crawl, and walk and then one becomes a youth and starts to fend for one self, gradually one has got to become old and die. Let us join this association with all the determination to help the elderly as best as we can.

By joining we are trying to make the point that we are sitting together as a team to try and solve some of the immense problems facing the elderly on the continent of Africa.

Yours faithfully,

Paul,

Of the Monkey clan in the State of Buganda and Uganda.

Govt of Uganda withdraws retirement Bill from Parliament. 

By Yasiin Mugerwa

The Uganda Parliament of 50 years

The Bill was first tabled in the previous Parliament and had never been withdrawn yet the government brought another draft in the current Parliament

The Parliament of Uganda.

Government on Wednesday withdrew the Retirement Benefits Sector Liberalisation Bill 2011 from Parliament and admitted “duplicating” issues in the disputed law that seeks to restructure the pension sector.

It emerged that ministry of Finance officials, either “knowingly or unknowingly” brought two Bills on pension reforms to Parliament.

The MPs said this “serious omission” misled the Parliament’s Finance Committee and the Speaker to proceed on a wrong Bill.

The Bill was read for the first time on September 19 and referred to the committee for further scrutiny.

This same Bill was first tabled in the previous Parliament and had never been withdrawn yet the government brought another draft in the current Parliament.

In the process of scrutinising the proposed pension reforms, the Finance Committee wrote to the Speaker on July 7 citing the anomalies.

The Speaker wrote back to the committee on July 27 ordering the government to withdraw the Bill.

“We apologised to the Speaker, to the Finance Committee…for duplicating the bill,” Mr Fred Omach, the junior Finance minister (General Duties) said and sought leave of Parliament to officially withdraw the Bill. The stalled pension reforms seek to end the National Social Security Fund’s monopoly and open up the sector to competition.

MPs are divided on how the proposed pension sector reforms should deal with NSSF after the government presented the planned legislation to the Finance Committee in September last year.

While many MPs admitted they had not yet “internalised” the Bill in 2010, those who had ‘perused’ opposed the proposal to give NSSF a transition of five years before the Fund joins other private players in a liberalised market.

ymugerwa@ug.nationmedia.com

Ezadde lituuse abaana 17:

Ogumu ku mirimu gye nsigazza ku nsi kuzaala kati ndi mu baana 17

Kampala, Uganda.

Mar 08, 2015

WALAKKIRA Nyanzi sipiika w’eggombolola y’e Makindye okuzaala abaana okujjuza ekika kimusuza akukunadde nga lumonde mu kikata. Ali mu bulumi olw’okulemwa okutuukiriza olubimbi lwe yeesalira okuzaala abaana 20 mu myaka ena n’asobola kufuna 17 bokka. “Ekinnuma njagala bwe mpeze emyaka 45 nga nnina abaana 100 naye kati mpezezza emyaka 37 ndi mu baana 17 bokka. 
Walakira mutabani w’abagenzi Maj. Emannuel Nyanzi Walakira ne Capt. Mary Nakiganda abaabeeran¬ga e Namasuba.

Agamba nti kitaabwe yalina abaana abasoba mu 30 naye bazze bafa nga kati basigadde abaana basatu bokka era bonna balwana okulaba nga baweza ekika. Mukulu waabwe Michael Ddumba agamba nti, awezezza abaana 50 ne Ismail John Bugembe ali mu 20 naye luno lubimbi lwe okuyisa bakulu be ekika kiwere. Omwana we eyasooka yamufuna mu 2007 nga Justine Nabbanja ye yamuzaala.

Walakkira agamba nti, azadde mu bakyala ab’enjawulo wakati wa 2007 ne 2015 era bonna abamanyi. 
Agamba omukyala gwe yasooka okuwasa baafuna obutakkaanya ne baawukana wabula Mukama n’amuwa omulala gw’agamba nti Katonda yamuwa kirabo kubanga ono ayagala buli mwana era olumutegeeza nti, yazadde ng’amugamba amuleete awaka amulere baweze ekika.

The old people's social protection charter: Uganda makes progress, but challenges persist

Last Updated: 08 July 2015

Erineo Bahemirwa struggles to stand up on his own without any support due to his advanced age.

The 82-year-old is a resident of Kyesiga, a suburb of Hoima municipality, Hoima district. Though he is too old for any kind of work, he still meets his basics of life.

“I am a pensioner,” he says adding: “My pension money is enough to cater for basic needs.” Much as he could not disclose his monthly pension, Bahemirwa even uses part of it to pay tuition fees for one of his granddaughters.

“This little pension money is very important, especially when you are aged,” he narrates. Without pension, he says, he could possibly either be depending on his children or living a destitute life. In addition to a monthly pension, he also received gratuity that he used to set up a small cattle farm, where he further earns money.

Bahemirwa is one of a few Ugandans who enjoy social protection on retirement or when they can longer work. The 52-year-old Jackson Irumba, on the other hand, was sent into early retirement due to health complications. He was a primary school teacher in a privately-run school in Nyamarunda trading centre, Kibaale district.

In his energetic days, Irumba planted three acres of coffee and an acre of bananas for local brew as ‘an insurance’ of where he would get income in old age. However, both the bananas and coffee were attacked and wiped out by banana bacterial wilt and coffee wilt respectively.

To make matters worse, he never made any savings for the future yet he was not a civil servant to qualify for government pension. “I normally receive financial support from my daughter who is a teacher,” he said. With no income of his own, and would therefore live a destitute live, if the daughter wasn’t offering a hand.

Many Ugandans face similar difficulties like Irumba. Majority work in the informal sector and when they cease to work either due to advanced age or other reasons, they fall back into a poverty trap, because while they worked, they never saved for their future. Therefore, they either depend on handouts from their immediate relatives or live destitute. That is why every person needs some kind of social protection.

SOCIAL PROTECTION

Irumba calls on government to also enroll him on the senior citizens grants to be able to earn an income. However, the senior citizens grants under Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE), is currently run only in 14 districts, where elder persons are given a monthly cash transfer of Shs 25,000. However, Kibaale is not one of them.

Even then, he may still not quality because the grants are available to persons above 60 years of age. Due to SAGE interventions, most Ugandans look at social protection in terms of ‘cash transfers’ to senior citizens grants. However, Stephen Kasaija, the head of Social Protection Secretariat in the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, says social protection is much broader than cash transfers.

Social protection, Kasaija explains, is any public or private interventions that address issues of risk and vulnerabilities that occur in the life cycle of every individual. It includes protection of orphans and other vulnerable children, the disabled, youth, women, unemployed and elder persons, among others. Social protection in Uganda is enshrined in the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy in the constitution.

But how is the country faring on the social protection front? Kasaija believes that Uganda is making serious inroads in as far as social protection is concerned, though there is still a lot to do. “We now have a draft policy in place that looks at social protection broadly,” he said. The draft policy outlines two key interventions to social protection; namely, social security and social care.

Social security, he says, includes contributory schemes for those employed in salaried jobs in the private sector. Such schemes include mandatory contributory schemes for retirement like National Social Security Fund (NSSF) where employers and employees save 15 per cent of one’s monthly salary to the fund for the future, and insurance, among others.

Besides contributory schemes, there are also non-contributory schemes like government pension where civil servants who qualify earn gratuity and a monthly pension and cash transfers schemes like senior citizens grants and others.

SOCIAL CARE

Beside social security, the policy also identifies social care as another strategic component of social protection. Social care involves direct interventions like providing a home and other basics to orphaned or abandoned children, the extremely disabled or extremely old and vulnerable elders.

However, government has not invested a lot in social protection, leaving the bulk of the interventions to non-government organisations (NGOs) that have built foster homes for abandoned children and others.

“At the moment, the country has only one government-run reception centre in Naguru for abandoned children and the rest are handled by NGOs without government support. But this is a responsibility of government. We need more reception centers in the country,” he says.

NARROW CATCHEMENT

A 2014 report authored by the World Bank titled Reducing Old Age and Economic Vulnerabilities:  Why Uganda Should Improve Its Pension System”, reveals that Uganda’s work force is estimated to be 15 million people. However, only 2.5 million are employed in the formal wage-paying jobs.

Out of the 15 million workforce in the country, Kasaija says, only 750,000 save for their future with NSSF while only 250,000 civil servants on government payroll are potential pensioners and only 50,000 are on government pension. These statistics reveal that less than one million Ugandans in formal employment are eligible for retirement benefits.

The report calls for improved pension system even for those in the informal sector to help reduce old-age vulnerabilities, promote social transformation and accelerate economic development.

In a bid to widen the catchment area, government enacted the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) Act as an important step towards liberalization the pensions sector and making it user-friendly.

David Nyakundi, the Chief Executive Officer of URBRA, said the Authority has so far made a number of regulations under the act in execution of its mandate. The authority also licenses and supervises other employer or institution-based pension schemes, where employer helps employees save for their retirement.

“So far, we have 92 [retirement benefits schemes] schemes both private and public,” he said. He observes that all these schemes have a narrow catchment area.

“Currently the system is designed for people assumed to be earning monthly salary. It is a colonial-designed sector that left out the informal sector,” he says.
“Now that we have the huge and powerful informal sector reality, we need to design a retirement benefit scheme that incorporates them,” he argues. 

REFORM GOVERNMENT PENSION 

Under government pension scheme, civil servants don’t contribute to their pension and gratuity and running such a scheme is costly to the taxpayers. Dan Ngabirano, a lecturer of law at Makerere University, argues: “So, there is that whole burden on government and which the government will not sustain because as the population is increasingly becoming healthier, people live longer and as such you will have more people on pension,” he said.

Kasaija observes that in future the government pension may be too huge for government and, therefore, needs to be reformed. He wants it to be made contributory, so that civil servants just like employees in the private sector, contribute towards their pension.

“We are trying to make it also contributory. We need to harmonize the pension system and make government pension contributory like in the private sector,” he argues.

Kasaija also argues that contributions to NSSF and other retirement benefits funds should not be rigid. For instance, these schemes should allow a member to withdraw a certain percentage in case he or she becomes temporarily unemployed as he or she looks for another job or be able to use the savings as a mortgage.

Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, in a statement issued on June 30, 2015, called for universal social protection. He said social protection is going to be a strong pillar in the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  He calls on countries, Uganda inclusive, to implement social protection laws and policies to achieve substantially for the poor and vulnerable.

MINIMUM WAGE

Another tool of social protection the country is looking at is the recently-reconstituted Minimum Wages Advisory Board. Cabinet approved the board recently. The board, headed by former secretary to the treasury Chris Kassami, is expected to undertake a comprehensive study on the wage trends in different sectors of the economy by analyzing employment trends, the cost of living, and wage trends according to professions in different countries.

In a paper titled Minimum Wage in Uganda: An Urgent Call authored by Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES), an international NGO, observes that a minimum wage is first and foremost a basic social protection floor to guarantee a basic survival standard in a given society.

“Many Ugandans are working, but their earnings are too meagre to lift them out of poverty. They are known as working poor, who need protection,” the report reads.

Uganda last set a minimum wage of Shs 6,000(2 dollars) per month in 1984, which is currently the minimum wage. The Minimum Wage Advisory Board in 1995 recommended it be revised to Shs 75,000 monthly for unskilled workers, but the recommended was never adopted. 

ssekika@observer.ug

A warning has been put out concerning the very high cost of wages for the Members of Parliament in Uganda:

By Billy Rwothungeyo

Posted on 8th March 2016

Yiga (R) flanked by Imelda Namagga the senior

program officer at Uganda Debt Network during the

press briefing.

Photo by Agnes Nantambi

The increasing weight of parliamentarians’ wage bill is becoming too big a burden that it will break the backs of tax payers sooner than later, the Uganda Debt Network (UDN) has warned.

The number of MPs has increased from 365 in the ninth parliament to 458 in the 10thparliament due to the newly created constituencies.

“Holding other factors constant, the wage bill for parliamentarians will be over sh11b per month.

This will be a big burden on the tax payers as the cost of public administration is too high and unsustainable with time,” said Iga Christopher, a board member of the Uganda Debt Network.

Speaking a press on Sunday at UDN offices in Kampala, Yiga reasoned that the implications of this rising wage bill could lead to more government borrowing.

“While borrowing is not a problem per se, what do we say of the Uganda case, for instance, where external borrowing increased by 82% between FY 2014/15 and FY 2013/14? Over a longer horizon, total external debt for Uganda was said to be $6.27b at the end of February 2015, compared to $0.99b in 2006.”

Julius Kapwepwe Mishambi, director of programmes at UDN slammed the ninth parliament—and urged MPs in the upcoming parliament to justify their obese wages by getting to work.

“Even at the 11th hour, the ninth parliament did not perform. We have about 36 reports that have not been tackled; we have about 40 petitions from across Uganda that has not been handled. We have a number of other bills that are lying idle in the 9th parliament,” he said.