Accountants oppose NSSF househelp drive

PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | FILE The NSSF's office building in Nairobi.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By JOHN NJAGI

In Summary

• Institute states that minimum wage level workers should not be targeted to join scheme
• The auditor-general’s report has accused the NSSF of losing Sh3 billion in dubious contracts, land and share purchasing deals

Accountants have opposed a move to have househelps and their employers contribute to the national pension scheme.

Mr Benson Okundi of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Kenya said it was disappointing that the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) sought to rope in more Kenyans to the scheme despite poor use of existing contributions.

“It is disheartening to note that while the existing contributions are not well utilised, NSSF has embarked on an ambitious programme to enlist more contributors to the scheme among them domestic workers and their employers who are already hard pressed economically,” Mr Okundi said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said those at the minimum wage level should not be asked to contribute to the pension scheme until Kenyans were assured that their contributions would not be pilfered.

The auditor-general’s report has accused the NSSF of losing Sh3 billion in dubious contracts, land and share purchasing deals.

Failing to respond

Mr Okundi also accused the fund’s board of failing to respond to previous audit reports that revealed massive mismanagement of members’ contributions, leading to repetition of similar fraud.

He asked the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee to take NSSF to task over the audit-reports and ensure perpetrators of the theft of public funds were punished.

The accountants’ organisation also called on establishment of special courts to deal with cases of economic crimes effectively to help end impunity and rampant corruption in state institutions.

He urged PAC to ensure the Sh6 billion allegedly stolen from NSSF was recovered to help fund some government development projects.