The Finance ministry’s permanent secretary and secretary to the treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi has assured Ugandans that the government does not borrow money from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF).
His assurance comes at a time when fears have been raised that the fund is now being forced to use workers’ money to pay for activities of the government.
This is after the Gender and Labour Minister, Betty Amongi was put on the spot for making an “irregular” request of Shs6 billion from NSSF to fund activities in her office.
The minister has since come out to defend the request saying it is within the law and that the funds are included in the NSSF’s 2022/23 budget for the promotion of accountability and mobilization of savings.
The Inspectorate of Government office has since taken over investigations into alleged abuse of office, corruption, and mismanagement of NSSF funds by outgoing executive director, Richard Byarugaba.
Speaking to KFM, Ggoobi said the government borrows money from banks and NSSF gives them money through treasury bills.
“Some of the things you have been hearing are lies. I saw a headline ‘government is going to borrow from NSSF’. Government does not borrow from institutions and companies, we borrow from banks. NSSF lends us money through treasury bills,” Ggoobi told KFM.