Bellevue to revisit contributions

Newly-elected state senator Matt Smith takes the oath of office in Harrisburg on Jan. 1.

 

 By Connie Rankin

Bellevue Council will revisit the issue of how much administrative employees should contribute to the cost of their health insurance.

For the last two years, non-contract employees have contributed 10 percent of the cost of the insurance. This year, the rate was decreased to 7 percent. Recent agreements with the borough’s unions, with the police contract settled by arbitrators, set the contribution rate for union workers at 5 percent.

“The message we’re sending here is if you aren’t in a union, you don’t count,” said council member Kathy Coder after making a motion to prepare an amendment to the borough’s salary ordinance that would reduce the non-contract employees’ contribution rate to 5 percent. She said that this would encourage all employees to unionize.

Even at the 7 percent rate, noncontract employees will save about $400 this year on health insurance due to a switch in plans. With the new plan, employees pay no deductible and have no co-pays.
Regardless, the rate needs to be the same for all employees in order to be fair, said council member Jim Scisciani.

Mayor George Doscher said that the administrative employees had been promised by council that their contribution rate would be adjusted once agreements were reached with the unions. That assertion was disputed by council president Linda Woshner and member Susan Viscusi, both of whom said that no promises had been made and no council votes had been taken on that issue.

Doscher maintained that the adjustment was the result of a “general consensus of council.”

“Maybe nobody spoke it,” Doscher said. “Maybe by your silence it was assumed you agreed.”

Woshner said that it would cost the borough about $4,000 if the contribution rate is decreased to 5 percent.
Voting in favor of the motion to draft an amendment were Coder, Susan Viscusi, Frank Camello, Mark Helbling and Scisciani. Opposed were Woshner, Jim Viscusi and Jane Braunlich.

France revises retirement to 60 for some workers

ARIS, Wednesday

France’s new Socialist government has rolled back an emblematic reform of Nicolas Sarkozy’s administration with a decree lowering the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers, a minister said.

The decree, reducing the age limit for people who begin their careers at the age of 18, was agreed on at a cabinet meeting, Social Affairs Minister Marisol Touraine told reporters as she left the meeting.

It will be finalised before the end of the month before being published in France’s official gazette.

Next year around 110,000 people are expected to benefit from the measure at an estimated cost of 1.1 billion euros, an amount expected to rise to 3.0 billion euros a year by 2017, she said.

Up to six months of unemployment and six months of maternity leave can be included in the calculation of the amount of time a worker has to pay into pension funds to benefit from retirement at 60, Touraine said.

This system means that “women who worked and who had children will not be penalised in the calculation of their pension”, she said, adding that the project will be financed by a rise in workers and employer contributions.

Government owes veterans Shs1 trillion - minister

 

In Summary

Mr Kiyonga says govt is working on ways to clear the outstanding debt.

Government owes army veterans Shs1 trillion, the minister of Defence told Parliament yesterday. Responding to a query from Kalungu County MP Vincent Sempijja, Mr Crispus Kiyonga told the House that the government is grappling with a huge backlog of debts due to retired and deceased army officers.

Mr Sempijja asked the minister to inform the House on the types of benefits army veterans are entitled to, the procedure of claiming for the benefits and the efforts being made to pay the veterans their outstanding benefits.

“Over the years many soldier shave passed on, many have retired and many are owed huge sums of money. Government continues to make recommendable effort to ensure that the backlog is finished. The cause of this backlog is lack of money,” Mr Kiyonga said.

“The policy now in the government is to make sure that the backlog doesn’t grow. Anybody who retires now gets what's due to them.”

Complaints
Over the years, there have been complaints about the government’s failure to compensate army veterans, and the long and tedious process involved in accessing monies, especially in times when families try to get money for deceased relatives.

Mr Kiyonga, however, told the House that the Ministry of Defence is working with their counter parts in the Public Service to streamline the process.

“In 2010, a special countrywide exercise was taken to clean the data base to be used in working out benefits,” he said.

He further said that a computerised system has been worked out to ensure that time of retirement is predictable.

In explaining the benefits the veterans are entitled to, Mr Kiyonga told the MPs that some of the benefits include the computed pension and gratuity, which he explained was a lump sum payment made once at the time of discharge of a soldier who had given service for at least nine years at the time of retirement.

iimaka@ug.nationmedia.com

Pension mafia grab extra Shs100 billion

 

Students of Nsambya Hillside High school Nakirebe celebrating after the senior six exams were released. According to the examination board, girls have beaten boys in this year’s exams. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa. 

By ANDREW BAGALA

Posted  Friday, February 22  2013  

The sophisticated masterminds of the pensions scam stole another Shs104 billion in the 2011/12 financial year, police said yesterday.

Detectives investigating the matter say the new figure is separate from the Shs63 billion earlier confirmed stolen by colluding civil servants, bank officials and financial scam artists.

As with the previous uncovered thefts, the money was wired through Cairo International Bank in Kampala. Police say they have uncovered photographs of 1,160 alleged beneficiaries of the money, but many of who are believed to have had their identities stolen in order to facilitate the scam.

Police intend to release the photos of the alleged recipients after failing to contact any of them.
Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said the telephone contacts of the suspected pension beneficiaries in the bank accounts list are either out of service or non-existent.

“We are inviting those individuals to CIID headquarters to enable our detectives interview them to ascertain whether they received the actual funds or not,” Ms Nabakooba said yesterday.

“We therefore suspect these could be pictures of innocent persons which were irregularly fixed on the account opening forms in connivance with the bank officials.”

It was not immediately clear how the police will publicise the photographs. This is the second list of suspected beneficiaries of pension funds released by the police since the investigations started last year.

The first list of photographs was in relation to the Shs63 billion that was alleged to Eastern African Community Beneficiaries Association while the second list is linked to Shs104 billion that was paid to retired civil servants in government ministries.

Interdicted permanent secretary in the Public Service ministry Jimmy Lwamafa, principal accountant

Christopher Obey, assistant accountants David Oloka and Steven Lwanga as well as Mr Peter Ssajjabi, the national secretary East Africa Beneficiary Association, are facing corruption related cases in court over payments to suspected ghost pensioners.

Police believe that people’s identities were stolen or made up and used to siphon pensions. Among the photographs released by the police, is one of a regular newspaper contributor, Mr Kavuma-Kaggwa, but is accompanied by the name of Enock Bateeze.

Mr Kavuma, a former civil servant and journalist, said he has not received part of his pension.

abagala@ug.nationmedia.com

US Ambassador ties ‘unchecked’ theft to governance

Scott DeLisi, us ambassordor 

By TABU BUTAGIRA

Posted  Saturday, February 23  2013 at  02:16

In Summary

Rebuttal. Information Minister Okurut says DeLisi’s remarks are “unfortunate”

The US Ambassador, Mr Scott DeLisi, on Thursday, declared that “unchecked and pervasive” pilfering of public resources by bureaucrats is an outcome of the manner in which Uganda is governed.

In some of the strongest comments from the country’s development partners, the envoy said corruption was keeping many genuine potential investors out of Uganda and called for deeper reforms.

“I fear that remedial efforts to address the most immediate donor concerns, although important steps, will do little to tackle the underlying reality that this unchecked virus is inextricably linked to the framework of governance in Uganda today,” Mr DeLisi told an American Chamber of Commerce Investment Opportunities in Energy and Infrastructure summit in Kampala.

Forensic audits and police investigations have lately uncovered theft of at least Shs227b - almost half the Shs585b allocated to Agriculture in the 2012/13 budget – by a cabal of pension managers and civil servants in the Office of the Prime Minister, the Finance Ministry, and the Central Bank.

The graft stories forced European development partners to freeze aid, demanding, among other things, a refund of their stolen monies; reform in public finance management and punishment of culprits. Several officials have either been arrested or remanded in prison.

The US does not give direct budget support to government but is the largest bilateral donor to the country, spending $720m on education, health and military assistance last year, a spending Washington plans to keep in 2013.

At Thursday’s business summit, Amb. DeLisi said: “Over the next few months, the donor community will be watching carefully to see what steps Uganda takes to ensure that the [graft] perpetrators are punished regardless of their status...”

“The Ugandan government must, as a critical first step, be crystal clear in its message that it will not allow, will not tolerate, individuals seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of the interests of the nation and its citizens.”

Because of what he described as “pervasive” corruption, DeLisi noted that Uganda government’s partnership with the donor community is “seriously threatened”.

Aid and investment may still come, he said, “but if real changes are not made, we risk the same results of unfulfilled expectations, misdirected and stolen funds, and a failure to advance the national agenda.”
Information Minister Mary Karooro Okurut yesterday said the envoy’s remarks were “unfortunate”, considering that it was government investigators, and not the US Mission in Kampala, that unearthed the latest grand scams.

“We have taken many [suspects] to jail; prosecution of others is on-going. There’s political will to fight corruption and action is being taken. So, what is the ambassador taking about?” she asked.

Government officials last month took $14m out of the Treasury in a supplementary budget that Parliament is expected to approve retrospectively, to pay up Norway, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland whose donations for rebuilding war-scarred northern Uganda were stolen by senior OPM staff. Anti-graft activists criticised the move, arguing that individuals culpable should have reimbursed the stolen monies, not the government using taxpayers’ money.

Unchecked graft in Uganda has scared business executives in the world’s largest economy from investing here, the envoy noted, before raising questions about government’s capacity to manage expected oil windfall without the temptation on the part of its officials to steal.

Amb. DeLisi threw his weight behind government’s plan to invest in road and energy infrastructure, but cautioned that a “vision, however lofty and commendable, will never be more than a dream” if not implemented.
tbutagira@ug.nationmedia.com

Low income earners to access insurance

The cotton sector has in the last five years registered improvements both in value and volumes. File Photo. 

In Summary

It will be accessible to M-Cash account holders as premiums will only be paid through M-Cash.

KAMPALA

Low income earners, who have for long been unable to afford insurance covers, are set to benefit from a new product that will enable them to pay their medical bills in case of an accident.

The MyLife mobile personal accident insurance product launched by Liberty Life – a life insurance service provider – and MCash – a mobile money payment service provider – provides cover for accidental disability, loss of life as well as hospital cash back in the event the insured is involved in an accident, upon payment of monthly fees of between Shs2,500 and Shs12,500 depending on the plan.

The product has three plans including silver where a customer pays monthly fees of Shs2,500, gold Shs6,250 for the gold plan and Shs12,500 for the platinum plan.

Upon being hospitalised for more than 72 hours, disability or loss of life, the beneficiary or customer is entitled to a lump sum of Shs1 million, Shs2.5 million and Shs5 million for the silver, gold and platinum covers, respectively.

Speaking at the launch of the product in Kampala yesterday, Mr Joseph Almeida, Liberty Life managing director, said the product was driven by the insurance firm’s commitment to create a range of products and solutions to meet customers’ ever changing financial, investment and lifestyle risk situations. “One will never know when an accident will occur and sometimes the unexpected happens when we least expect. ...MyLife will take away the burden of worrying about the financial implication of such an accident,” Mr Almeida said.

Tracking claims
He added that the firm has sophisticated software that enables them to track at any stage claim submitted to ensure prompt settlement after receiving all the required documentation.

MyLife product is expected to improve access to insurance, especially among the lower segment of the population which has for long been untapped and grow penetration rates from the current 0.6 per cent, at which it has stagnated for years. The product, however, will be accessible to M-Cash account holders as premiums will only be paid through M-Cash.

fkulabako@ug.nationmedia.com

Education, development loans available: NSSF

hursday, 21 February 2013 23:07

The NSSF Planning and Investment manager, Mr Mseli Abdallah, talks to Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) staff yesterday at the firm’s Tabata Relini headquarters. In the foreground are Bakari Machumu (left) acting MCL group managing editor and NSSF Operations director Crescentius Magori. PHOTO | VENANCE NESTORY

By Sturmius Mtweve
The Citizen Reporter

Dar es Salaam. Members of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) have not yet fully utilised the loans offered through their respective credit cooperatives due to low awareness, the fund has said.

NSSF offers both education and development loans to its members through their Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Saccos) in the country at lower interest rates compared to market prices.

Education loan which is repaid in two years and a development loan of up to five years are offered at 9.32 per cent and 10.68 per cent respectively but the Saccos add up three per cent to cover their operation costs.
However, up to now, only six Saccos have secured loans worth Sh1.75 billion out of Sh5 billion the pension fund set aside to lend in the year ending June 2013.

“Less than a half of the amount was utilised in the current financial year. We will continue setting aside depending on the demand,” said Mr Mseli Abdalla, NSSF planning and investment manager yesterday.

According to NSSF Operations director Crescentius Magori, the situation has been caused by lack of information and awareness among members of these loan schemes.

He said in order for individuals to access loans from the scheme, they must first be registered members of NSSF and be active Saccos members as well – in which the Saccos will apply for the loan and lend to its members.

The NSSF officials were speaking yesterday to Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) workers in a session organised by the firm to appraise its workers on the benefits of joining employee-based Saccos and how the Fund works.

On the other hand Mr Magori said despite the fact that NSSF provides health benefits to its members, most of its members were still spending a lot of money in hospitals -- expenses which NSSF can cover through its benefit programe.