NSSF corruption scandal deepens
May 13, 1998
The bribery scandal in the troubled National Social deepened yesterday with the Board of Directors
backing its Managing Director against Parliament.
The NSSF board dismissed demands by MPs on the probe team sniffing out graft in the parastatal to
have the MD, Abel Katembwe, sent on forced leave.
As far as some board members were concerned, there was no evidence pinning the MD to any
impropriety. The probe team's chairman, Manuel Pinto, is said to have asked the board during a closed
session that it would smoothen proceedings if the MD was out of the way. But board member Sam
Rutega couldn't hear of it. He is said to have defended Katembwe as a hard working manager. He argued
that if Katembwe had to go, then the deputy MD, Yoramu Barongo and the Corporation Secretary,
John Kakooza, must go with him.
The open session which was attended by Katembwe, the NSSF Board and Alcon officials also heard
more thrilling revelations. The session was made privy to the recordings of the allegations made by the
Alcon officials when they met the committee in camera.
The directors of Alcon who only last week alleged that they gave Katembwe Shs 375m as a kickback, this
time round -- to the consternation of MPs -- said it was not a kickback.
Raj Kent said the Shs 375m allegedly given to Katembwe through a London agent was a "goodwill"
gesture to ensure a smooth working relationship between Alcon and the management of NSSF.
"It was personal . . . It [Shs 375m] was to build goodwill with management," Kent answered when James
Mwandha asked him whether Alcon's remittance of money to Katembwe and the architect belatedly after
the contract had already been awarded was in anticipation of another deal or faster payments.
"Then why does it [Shs 375m] feature in this investigation, how does it relate to the NSSF contract . . ."
a stern looking Pascal Mukasa asked the Alcon officials.
"If you start saying it was personal, you are becoming crafty, you are telling lies . . . Are you telling us
another thing because Katembwe is here?" a peeved Nathan Byanyima asked.
Pinto was quick to caution his colleagues against intimidating the witnesses. The board chairman, Charles
Okui, told the MPs that the board had already initiated the termination process.
"I can't see Alcon retaining that contract," he said.
He said however, that the board was willing to welcome parliament's recommendations on the disputed
contract.
"The board and the minister [Paul Etiang] will take appropriate action on the recommendations," he said.
The Alcon directors also alleged they had given the architect Henry Sentoogo US $20,000 he demanded
to finance his daughter's wedding in London in October 1996. But the duo was quick to add it would be
difficult to substantiate if taken to task.
Another batch of money allegedly demanded by Sentoogo was US $150,000 to purchase a house in UK.
However, the officials say they refused to part with it.
The same duo also said in Katembwe's presence that the Shs 375m allegedly given to him was done in six
instalments. Kent said that payments were done in London through agents. When put to task to reveal
the identities of Katembwe's agents, they identified only one Jackishi Babiisi, whom they said was the
man named by Katembwe during their negotiations at Kabira Club Bukoto -- to be one used in remitting
the money to him. Mwandha asked Kent to get real. He told the Alcon officials that parting with monies
of such magnitude compels one to make notes of the dispatches. He asked to be furnished with the
dates and the
particular amounts dispatched.
"In transactions of this nature no records are made," Kent said.
__________
bwanika
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