Lawmakers on the Committee on Public Service and Local Government have questioned Government’s readiness to run the proposed Public Service Pension Fund.
The committee is currently processing the Public Service Pension Fund Bill, 2023 which seeks to establish a Fund to collect contributions from public servants and pay retirement benefits to the beneficiaries akin to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) that manages contributions from the private sector.
The bill before the Public Service Committee was tabled in March by the Ministry of State for Public Service. While meeting the Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (General Duties), Hon. Henry Musasizi, legislators, sought the government’s commitment to have this bill processed and later on effectively implemented.
The Deputy Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. Christine Apolot said a lot of information about the bill is desired from both the Minister of Finance and Minister of Public Service.
Just like the NSSF, the public service pension fund will be funded by a 15 percent contribution; with the Government contributing 10% and public servants contributing 5% which will be in form of a monthly deduction from the employee’s salary. However, in the first year of implementation, the government will fund the whole 15 percent including the employee’s portion.
MPs proposed that the 10 percent contribution from the government should be deducted at source to avoid the current cases of non-remittances at NSSF.
Minister Musasizi said the public service pension fund will be run the same way NSSF operates and that its functionality will bring more money into the economy. However, he was tight-lipped on the actual period of implementation once the bill is passed.
There are about 350,000 public servants on active payroll at local governments, ministries, departments, and agencies. The scheme will include all civil servants, with the exception of UPDF officers, as well as lecturers of public universities, who have their own schemes.
