NSSF deputy MD asks court to block her forced leave

Mar 14, 2016

The NSSF board last week wrote to Ssali asking her to take immediate leave as they investigated claims of insubordination and failure to follow company rules

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Deputy Managing Director Geraldine Ssali has taken the firm and the board chairman Patrick Byabakama Kaberenge to court after the board decided she forcefully takes her accumulated annual leave as it carries out investigations into her conduct.

In a suit filed before the High Court civil division in Kampala on Friday, Miscellaneous Cause No 22 of 2016, Ssali wants the court to issue an order of Certiorari against the respondents quashing their directive that she takes forced annual leave and immediately vacates and hands over office.

She also seeks an order of, "Prohibition stopping the 1st respondent (NSSF), its officers, principals, agents and any other person who acts under or by the authority or on behalf of the respondents from implementing or otherwise effecting the directives of the respondents contained in the letter dated March 9, 2016."

She is also seeking a permanent injunction restraining the respondent and a declaration that the directive made by the board chairman addressed her asking her to go on leave was unlawful and of no legal effect at all.

sali is reportedly at loggerheads with her boss ichard yarugaba Ssali is reportedly at loggerheads with her boss Richard Byarugaba.

 

The NSSF board last week wrote to Ssali asking her to take immediate leave as they investigated claims of insubordination and failure to follow company rules on her part. This follows a fall out between her and her immediate boss, NSSF managing director Richard Byarugaba.

A statement from the NSSF availed to New Vision on Saturday did not indicate the reasons why she had been asked to take her annual leave though it did indicate the board had asked her to take it.

"The Deputy Managing Director of the NSSF, Mrs. Geraldine Ssali Busulwa has been requested to take her annual leave earned for the period 1st July 2015 to 9th March 2016," the statement partly reads.

It however further noted that during her leave, "The board will be reviewing certain matters and will communicate the outcome of that review at an appropriate time," further adding controversy on why she might have been forced to take leave.

A source at the firm speaking on condition of anonymity said the relationship between the MD and his deputy had literally broken down over the number of years the two had worked together. 

Byarugaba had earlier expressed his frustrations at NSSF when he appeared before a select committee of Parliament probing the state of affairs at NSSF and the purchase of shares from UMEME that was investigating mismanagement at NSSF.

He said he met resistance since the first day he stepped in office by individuals he says were scared of reforms he was planning to bring in the management of the fund.

Byarugaba said that the deputy managing director and the company secretary, led the group that labored so much to fight him although he remained strong contributing to the growth of the fund

Shortly after this appearance his contract came to an end at the firm and Ssali took over as the MD as the search for his replacement was carried out.

When President Yoweri Museveni ordered for the return of Byarugaba as the fund's MD, the relationship between the two further declined and sources say Ssali refused to take instruction from her boss.

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