How NSSF clamped down on suspense account fraud and won Shs 152m case

Last week, the High court sentenced John Sooka, a former employee of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), to five years in prison for fraudulently withdrawing over Shs 152m from the fund’s suspense account.

This was after NSSF handed him over in October, 2019 to the police and directorate of public prosecutions (DPP) following an internal investigation that established suspicious withdraws he had fraudulently processed over time.

The suspense account is where the fund temporarily saves contributions with unclear details of the member accounts to which they should be deposited. The money is later allocated to the respective member accounts upon reconciliation with the contributing employers.

So, in October, 2019, the fund’s internal audit department established that Sooka had presented fictitious claim documents that he used to access monies of the unsuspecting members between May, 2017 and July, 2019.

“All the monies released on account of the false claims was credited to the (bank) accounts controlled by the accused…,” read the judgement delivered by lady justice Margaret Tibulya on February 25, 2023.

At the time of his arrest, Sooka had fraudulently claimed monies for seven members. The fund’s internal audit team identified unusual withdraws on the suspense account following a tip-off by one of the victims. It was discovered that the genuine members hadn’t claimed their monies although claims had been processed in their favour.

Sooka was convicted on a total of 10 counts that included embezzlement, money laundering, forgery and uttering of false documents. Justice Tibulya convicted Sooka on each of the 10 counts as charged. He was asked to refund the Shs 152m he had stolen from the fund and banned from assuming any positions in public offices for a period of 10 years.

TIGHTER SECURITY

Barbra Arimi, the fund’s head of marketing and corporate affairs, said that the win demonstrated the fund’s zero tolerance to fraud.

“We are committed to protecting our members’ savings at all costs and have put in place several security checks to prevent fraud especially from the suspense account.”

The fund has since put in place initiatives to mitigate the growth of balances on the suspense account. These initiatives include the e-collections portal which makes it impossible for employers to remit without complete employee information, publication of suspense in different media platforms as well as field engagements aimed at tracing members on the suspense account.

In addition, the fund has fully integrated with NIRA to enable the registration of members, and this has significantly reduced the amount of incoming suspense.

“The bulk of the suspense relates to historical periods. Once all efforts to clear suspense are exhausted, we will publish all pending suspense and have it moved to the reserve as per provisions of the NSSF Act (as amended),” Arimi concluded.