The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has upgraded its web-based whistleblower portal to enable members report defaulting employers in a seamless manner and ultimately increase the compliance rate to 60% effective this year.
The new features of the upgraded portal include a complete anonymity option to protect whistleblowers from possible victimization and an automatic tracking aspect of reported cases.
In addition, the new portal now allows government labour inspectors to report government contractors who stubbornly refuse to contribute to the Fund as per the new NSSF Act that requires all employers irrespective of size to remit social security contributions for their employees.
Announcing the portal upgrade, Patrick Ayota, NSSF Managing Director noted that only 20,762 out of 36,426 registered employers were actively remitting contributions to the Fund, giving a compliance rate of 57%.
“This indicates that we have a compliance rate of only 57%. Compliance means that an employer is remitting the contribution on time and in full. The data above means that over 15,000 employers are not complying and are cheating their employees of their retirement savings. The sad news is that, on average, only 107 cases are being reported monthly,” he said.
Ayota further explained that the Fund initiates an investigation upon receipt of reported cases from the whistleblower. The reported employer is then offered an opportunity to comply and settle the matter amicably, if the allegation is proven to be true, where the employer stubbornly refuses to cooperate, other drastic measures come into force including prosecution and the application of the punitive penalties permitted within the law.
“Over the last two years, we have recovered Shs 8,969,549,733 through litigation. We currently have over 390 cases and expect to recover even more with this new whistleblower platform,” he said.
Common forms of irregularities in NSSF compliance include employers defaulting on monthly social security remittances despite deductions from their employees’ salaries, employers who don’t contribute their mandatory 10% on top of their employee’s 5% contributions, and employers who under-declare their staff’s gross salaries with a motive to pay less monthly contributions for their staff.
