The former employee of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), John Sooka, has been sentenced to five years in prison for fraudulently withdrawing over Shs 152m from the fund’s suspense account. This sentence was handed down by the High Court last week after NSSF had handed him over to the police and directorate of public prosecutions (DPP) in October 2019. The handover was a result of an internal investigation that had established suspicious withdrawals that Sooka had fraudulently processed over time.
The suspense account is a temporary holding place for 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. In October 2019, the NSSF’s internal audit department discovered that Sooka had presented fictitious claim documents to access monies of unsuspecting members between May 2017 and July 2019.
According to the judgement delivered by Lady Justice Margaret Tibulya on February 25, 2023, all the monies released on account of the false claims were credited to bank accounts controlled by Sooka. At the time of his arrest, Sooka had fraudulently claimed monies for seven members. The fund’s internal audit team had identified unusual withdrawals 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.
Barbra Arimi, the fund’s head of marketing and corporate affairs, said that the win demonstrated the fund’s zero tolerance to fraud. She added that the fund is committed to protecting its members’ savings at all costs and has put in place several security checks to prevent fraud, especially from the suspense account.
To mitigate the growth of balances on the suspense account, the fund has put in place initiatives, including the e-collections portal, which makes it impossible for employers to remit without complete employee information. The fund has also published 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, which has significantly reduced the amount of incoming suspense.
Arimi concluded by saying that the bulk of the suspense relates to historical periods. Once all efforts to clear suspense are exhausted, all pending suspense will be published and moved to the reserve as per provisions of the NSSF Act (as amended). The NSSF’s initiatives to tighten security measures on the suspense account show its commitment to ensuring the safety of its members’ savings.
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