The deputy Managing Director of National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Geraldine Ssali Busulwa has been sacked, reports say.
The dismissal of Mrs. Busulwa, comes a year after President Yoweri Museveni intervened in the leadership wrangles at the state-controlled NSSF, persuading managing director Richard Byarugaba and his deputy to work together.
Local news site Eagle on Thursday claimed that the NSSF Board by Patrick Byabakama Kaberenge found Ms Ssali’s performance wanting and decided not to renew her contract that ends this October.
The Board has however, approved the renewal of the contract of Mr. Byarugaba, and that of Mr. Richard Wabwire, the Corporation Secretary.
The contracts of the top three bosses at the Fund ends this October and in November, the board was supposed to start the search process to replace them and saw it fitting to retain the best for three more years and through a letter, has recommended to the Minister of Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Mr. Matia Kasaija, to retain Byarugaba and Wabwire while Ms. Ssali has been left out.
An official statement on the changes is yet to be released by Ms Barbra Teddy Arimi, the NSSF head of marketing and communications.
Protracted battle for supremacy
On March 13, 2016, Ssali sued the Fund and Kaberenge, accusing the two of sending her on forced leave.
A protracted war followed before that even security officers at the Workers House in the Central Business District, told Ssali who was in the company of her lawyers that they were under strict instructions to keep her away. She ran to High court judge Steven Musota to get back her office.
Minister Kasaija in May 2016 called Ssali who had been on interdiction to report back to her office immediately and withdraw a court case in which she is demanding $500,000 for wrongful dismissal.
Mr Kasaija’s intervention is said to have followed a meeting between President Museveni and Ms Busulwa that sought to defuse tensions between her and Mr Byarugaba.
The disagreement between the two top officials of the pension fund exploded in March 2016, leading to the suspension of Ms Busulwa by the Fund’s board for alleged insubordination and frequent disagreements with her boss.
Intrigue
Observers point to incompatibility in character between Mr Byarugaba and Ms Busulwa as the root cause of the leadership wars at Uganda’s largest financial institution — it made 916 billion shillings in revenues last financial year.
Byarugaba had earlier expressed his frustration at NSSF when he appeared before a select committee of parliament probing the state of affairs at NSSF and the purchase of shares in Umeme. He said he met resistance since the first day he stepped in office by individuals he says were scared of reforms he was planning to bring in the management of the fund.
Byarugaba said that the deputy managing director and the company secretary, led the group that labored so much to fight him although he remained strong contributing to the growth of the fund
Shortly after this appearance his contract came to an end at the firm and Ssali took over as the MD as the search for his replacement was carried out.
When President Yoweri Museveni ordered for the return of Byarugaba as the fund’s MD, the relationship between the two further declined and sources say Ssali refused to take instruction from her boss.
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