Kadaga blames gender ministry for delaying NSSF Bill

PARLIAMENT  | NSSF BILL


The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has attributed the delayed passing of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) amendment Bill to the continued absence of the gender minister, Frank Tumwebaze, during the previous plenary sittings.

Kadaga made the remarks during the Wednesday plenary sitting after skipping consideration of the NSSF Bill over absence of the minister.

"Parliament is ready to pass the NSSF Bill. The minister for gender is responsible for this Bill, but he is not here. I do not see him. And I did not see him yesterday (Tuesday). It is the owner of the Bill who is not here," Kadaga stated.





The Speaker was responding to Kasilo County MP Elijah Okupa, who informed the House that he had seen workers' unions leader Usher Owere castigating Parliament for delaying to pass the Bill.

"I told Owere that it is not Parliament frustrating the Bill. It is the gender ministry.
We are remaining with only two clauses to finish the Bill," Okupa stated.
He emphasised the need for the minister Tumwebaze to play his role in passing the Bill to help NSSF members with financial hardships.

For the last two weeks, the NSSF Bill has been on the order paper, but could not be handled due to the absence of the minister.

During a press conference in Mbarara on Monday, Owere, the chairman of the National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU) and the leaders of the NRM party workers' league for western Uganda, expressed disappointment that Parliament had spent several weeks without handling the NSSF Bill.

Parliament passed most of the 29 clauses in the Bill and only stood over two clauses in regard to which ministry should be in charge of NSSF and whether percentage range for midterm access to NSSF benefits should be put in the law or left to the NSSF board to determine.

Whereas President Yoweri Museveni directed that NSSF should be under the finance ministry, some legislators have been insisting that since NSSF is mainly to do with social security for workers, it should be under the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

The last time Parliament debated the Bill (a month ago), both the ministers for finance and gender informed the House that Cabinet had resolved that NSSF would be under the finance ministry as has been for the last 10 years.





MIDTERM ACCESS
Initially, the Bill had provided midterm access for voluntary savers and left out the mandatory savers, who are the majority, but Parliament's joint finance and gender committee changed it to provide for midterm access to all NSSF members.

"A member who is 45 years and above or has contributed to the Fund for at least 10 years, is eligible to midterm access of a sum not exceeding 20% of his or her available accrued benefits," reads the new clause.

Chaired by Alex Ndezi, the committee has also added a provision in the Bill for a member who is a person with disability, who ceases to be employed for a period of one year, to be eligible to midterm access of a sum not exceeding 75% of his or her available accrued benefits.