ICT ON SPOT! Row erupts over UTL pensioners cash

**Pensioners protest letter to ICT ministry officials**

By Our Reporter

A row has erupted over pension arrears due to the former workers of Uganda Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (UPTC).

It has now pitted the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance against the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFP&ED).

Pensioners accuse the ICT ministry of dragging feet on the cash by paying less and acting at a snail speed. ICT bosses put the same blame on Finance counterparts who allegedly altered the payroll and released money late, allegations MoFP&ED dismissed as ‘baseless propaganda’.

HOW WE REACHED HERE

In 1997, the GoU split UPTC into four other entities—Uganda Telecom Limited, Posta Uganda, Post Bank and Uganda Communications Commission–UCC.

According to the UPTC Act of 1983, UPTC workers were entitled to pension from the corporation, with its Board at the time as the “pension authority”. The UPTC pension was contributory between the employees and employer.

Earlier on in 1993, the UPTC Board asked the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to start contributing to NSSF in respect to its employees’ savings on top of the contributory pension fund that was already in place.

When UPTC was split, giving rise to semi-private companies whose employees would ordinarily only contribute to NSSF, controversy arose as to how the new companies would proceed on the issue.

During the UPTC divestiture the employees who transferred services to the successor companies were given pension certificates to claim their pensions from the staff pension scheme called Uganda Communications Employees Contributory Pension Scheme (UCECPS).

The issue of whether former UPTC workers who had transferred to the new companies would still be entitled to pension, however, had been taken care of in the negotiations and written laws, especially the Uganda Communications Act, as the courts would later confirm.

COURT WOES

In 2003, two individuals, Bernard Mweteise and Asaph Ndaula, on behalf of 823 others, sued UTL and the other three successor companies of UPTC, together with the Attorney General and the registered trustees of the Uganda Communication Employees Contributory Pension Scheme (UCECPS), which brings together all the former workers of UPTC.

Ruling on the case, Justice Musoke-Kibuuka of the High Court found that all the former employees of UPTC, who were now with the successor companies, would not have their terms of service changed to their disadvantage.

Because UPTC employees were entitled to pension, the judgment read, the employees would still be entitled to pension on retiring or leaving the employment of the new companies under any other circumstances. Court further ruled that the employees would be considered to have had one continuous period of service, just bridging from UPTC to UTL and the other successor companies.

UTL-NSSF PROTEST

Armed with the court ruling, UTL said the workers were now not entitled to NSSF because they are pensionable. The matter ended in court and UTL had a field day.

UTL proceeded to demand from NSSF the money that it had remitted to the Fund since 1998 in respect of the former employees of UPTC under its employment. It argued the money had been contributed in “error” because the employees were pensionable.

The workers protested this decision also. If the refund were to be effected, UTL would receive back the 10 per cent of gross salaries remitted to NSSF since 1998 in respect of each of the employees, plus interest accrued on it, while the workers would reclaim their five per cent contribution, plus interest accrued on it. The matter went back to court and up to date, NSSF is yet to release the money to neither UTL nor employees of UPTC under its employment.

PENSION ARREARS WAR NOW

On May 30 this year, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of ICT and National Guidance released a list of former employees of UPTC and later UPL, UTL, alerting them that their Pension arrears for FY 2021/2022, had been released.

“Before payments are effected to those eligible, the Ministry needs to physically ascertain the following…” reads the notice.

However, on 8th July, Bernard Mweteise, the lead plaintiff for workers wrote to the ICT ministry raising a number of complaints concerning their pension.

They state that since the ministry started the payments, the majority of the pensioners on the payroll in question have not received their money. They further say that the payments are being done at snail speed.

According to the letter, even those who have paid are complaining of receiving less. The letter cites one of the pensioners who is supposed to be paid Ugx9.5m but has only received Ugx1.3m. Another pensioner is alleged to have received Shs2.3m instead of 6.7m. The list is big. The pensioners claim that when they complained, one of the ICT ministry officials, Moses, reportedly told them that Auditors from the Ministry of Finance came to the ICT ministry and altered the payroll. However, on 7th July, Mweiteise reportedly talked to Isingoma Hussein, MoFP&ED Asst. Commissioner Internal Audit who reportedly dismissed the allegations as baseless propaganda.

Isingoma clarified that their Auditors went to the ICT ministry only to verify whether the documents the pensioners submitted to the ICT ministry tally with the payroll.

The pensioners now want an official explanation from the ICT ministry so that their money is cleared.

ICT SPEAKS OUT

Contacted for a comment, Julius Victor Nkeramihigo, the Under Secretary in-charge of Finance and Administration in the ministry of ICT, said they release what is given to them by the ministry of finance which comes in phases.

“We pay as when we receive the money from the ministry of finance. The verification is done by the internal auditor general, and we pay whoever has been verified.”

When asked how many people have so far been paid, Nkeramihigo said that he didn’t have the figure on his fingertips, but puts the number at about 500.

He further said that the challenge they are facing with the pensioners is that some of them are receiving their monthly pay and mistaking it to be the gratuity which is supposed to be a lump sum.

Meanwhile, the pensioners insist that all the money was released by the ministry of finance to the ICT ministry but they are the ones who are delaying the process of payment through unfair deductions from the total amount payable to every pensioner.

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