NSSF scandal: Jamwa spills more beans

CHRIS OBORE

Kampala

The National Social Security Fund never initiated the buying of Security Minister Amama Mbabazi and businessman Amos Nzeyi’s land in Temangalo as the two men have previously claimed, fresh details from Parliament show.

Instead, it was Mr Mbabazi and Mr Nzeyi who approached the NSSF and asked the Fund to buy the-more-than 400 cares of land, according to NSSF Managing Director David Chandi Jamwa.

Sunday Monitor has learnt that Mr Jamwa confessed to the parliamentary committee investigating possible influence peddling and price inflation in the deal that the sellers approached him saying “there is land we want to sell; you say you need land to build housing units so that you give us money”.

Three MPs who sit on Parliament’s Committee on State Enterprises, Commissions and Statutory Authorities separately revealed to Sunday Monitor what they said were details of Mr Jamwa’s testimony given in camera on Thursday.

According to them, Mr Jamwa said he had resisted the deal because it was a “bad one” but he gave in after immense pressure from his line minister, Dr Ezra Suruma, Mr Mbabazi and Mr Nzeyi, especially after they invoked President Museveni’s name.

This development is likely to intensify pressure on Dr Suruma who is facing accusations of proceeding with the Shs11 billion deal reportedly in disregard of public procurement laws.

Dr Suruma denies influencing things.

Under the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act, any transaction involving funds in excess of Shs100 million must be subjected to competitive bidding.

Mr Jamwa reportedly told MPs that the deal would have been concluded as early as late last year had it not been for his dogged attempts to resist the pressure.

“Amos Nzeyi approached me in October last year but I tried to use delaying tactics that is why the deal was done in March this year,” an MP quotes Mr Jamwa as having said. “They insisted that all they needed was money to bail their bank out.”

After sensing the determination of Mr Mbabazi and his group, Mr Jamwa told MPs, he tried another delaying tactic by writing to the solicitor general for legal advice hoping that the SG would point out some illegalities.

Mr Jamwa said he was aware of the procurement loopholes but needed the solicitor general to back him up.

“The solicitor general okayed the deal,” he reportedly said. “I was puzzled and had nothing to do.”

Mr Jamwa allgedly added: “Whenever I would table the matter before the board, they were always ready to pass it. What would I do?“

When Dr Suruma appeared before MPs recently, he admitted that some board members including chairman Edward Gaamuwa and Ms Joyce Acigwa were his partners in a microfinance firm. He, however, denied that he could influence their actions because of this relationship.

According to Mr Jamwa’s testimony, the pressure intensified when Dr Suruma, together with Mr Nzeyi, called him for a meeting on January 9, 2008 at Munyonyo during the launch of Warid Telecom.

In the Munyonyo meeting, Dr Suruma reportedly lectured Mr Jamwa for hours before finally hammering home the point by saying they needed the money to rescue their bank – the National Bank of Commerce (NCB).

Dr Suruma, who is a shareholder in the bank, reportedly said they needed Shs15 billion but Mr Jamwa responded that this was much money.

It has been reported that Dr Suruma and Mr Mbabazi were under pressure to raise money to buy out their Kenyan-Indian partners in NCB.

But speaking to yesterday before he addressed a news conference, Dr Suruma wondered why Mr Jamwa who had earlier said he was not under any pressure “has changed his story”.

The haggling between Mr Jamwa and his bosses continued until March when the deal was sealed.

“They even wanted me to put [the] money in their account before signing the sale agreement but I refused,” one MP quoted Mr Jamwa to have said. “They then asked that I first deposit Shs6.5 billion and I still resisted.”

Apparently, Mr Nzeyi and Mr Mbabazi had unsettled financial obligations with Tropical Africa Bank and they reportedly asked Mr Jamwa to write to that bank informing them that the Fund was still negotiating with the Mbabazis over their land as a way of getting that bank to ease the pressure it was piling on them.

When MPs reportedly asked Mr Jamwa why he had not come out earlier and why he did not reject the pressure, he reportedly answered that he was under incessant threats.

He told MPs that he asked to appear before them alone because he needed to confide in them.

That is why, according to sources, the probe committee chairman Johnson Malinga threw journalists out of the committee room.

In his testimony, Mr Jamwa said he had decided to open up following constant pressure from Dr Suruma to resign.

“Since the matter went bad, the minister has been on my case to resign,” he allegedly told MPs. “But I am a professional person; I don’t want my name to be spoilt.”

MPs say Mr Jamwa was on the brink of tears and was jumpy whenever the door to the meeting room opened. “Close that door,” Mr Jamwa reportedly kept begging MPs.

He said his life was in danger because unknown people were reportedly threatening him through emissaries and anonymous phone calls.

The NSSF boss refused to leave Parliament unless the MPs provided him security. The MPs, through the Speaker, gave Mr Jamwa three police officers: two to be stationed at his home and one to be his escort.

He told MPs that Dr Suruma would have by now sacked him had it not been for the fact that the NSSF Act still gives powers to the Gender, Labour and Social Development minister and not the Finance minister to sack him or the board.

The NSSF was transferred from the Labour and Social Development ministry to Finance in 2004 following yet another real estate scandal (the Nsimbe Estates misadventure that caused a Shs8 billion loss) but the law was not changed to give powers to the latter department.

Yesterday, Dr Suruma said “it is unfair to say I get involved in NSSF details. A minister does not have that time”.

This was in response to our query stemming from information gleaned from other sources that Dr Suruma appeared to have a more than casual interest in NSSF. He has never assigned a desk officer to help him monitor the Fund’s operations.

Dr Suruma said he saw nothing wrong with this.

“The idea of desks I know but very many matters come to me,” he said. “Sometimes I consult and sometimes I don’t. We don’t have desks for ADB, URA and others, why ask about NSSF?”

Dr Suruma said his interest was to save NSSF.

The minister also denied reports that they badly needed NSSF money in order to rescue their bank, saying, “I don’t need money for rescuing the bank.”