Tanzania:Legislators clash over SSRA’s fate

From BERNARD LUGONGO in Dodoma

SOCIAL Development and Services Parliamentary Committee and the opposition camp yesterday clashed in the National Assembly over whether the Social Security Regulatory Authority (SSRA) should still exist after enactment of the Public Service Social Security Fund Bill, 2017.

The two parties argued when the government tabled the Bill for the second and final reading before endorsing the proposed law.
Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled) Minister Jenista Mhagama tabled the Bill as she appealed to MPs to pass it for the betterment of the working class.
The proposed Act proposes the establishment of the fund, the Public Service Social Security Fund (PSSSF), serving all employees inthe public service sector, including all workers in other pension funds. Among other crucial benefits, once passed, the law will enable a member to secure mortgage loans using their benefits, which will help them prepare for life after retirement, while they are still working.
It also provides room for the introduction of unemployment benefits in order to address a long existed challenge of members to withdraw their membership of the pension funds. As PSSSF will be serving public employees, another scheme, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) will take care of workers in the private sector.
Chairman of the Committee, Mr Peter Serukamba argued that the SSRA had been mandated to regulate all pension funds, protecting rights of members of the funds and providing policy advice to the responsible minister, among others. He explained that the committee has observed that there were still many and huge responsibilities for the authority, considering that the pension funds are going to be merged; it has to ensure that the members’ records remain intact, cautioning that the merging of funds should not be a reason for ceasing of the SSRA services.
“Therefore, the SSRA monitoring is highly needed during this time than ever before,” he said when presenting views of the Committee to Parliament. The Committee, however, advised that before implementation of the proposed law, the government has to do actuarial evaluation on all pension funds in order to prepare the formula, the task which needs to get support from the SSRA.
In their presentation, the opposition camp proposed disbandment of the SSRA since the funds are merged into only two. “We don’t see the importance of SSRA while there will be only two funds because the authority is meaningful when it regulates many schemes which create competition,” Bunda Urban lawmaker Ester Bulaya (CHADEMA), said when presenting the camp’s stance.
Ms Bulaya explained that the camp recommended that the government initiates the process to disband the authority because its existence would add more unnecessary costs, since the law requires all funds to make annual contributions to the authority, a situation which the opposition believes it was valid when the funds were more than five.
Meanwhile, Mr Serukamba asked the government to clarify on the envisaged unemployment benefit in order to create more awareness among members of the public, since currently there is misleading information regarding this type of benefit.