NSSF saga: Byarugaba's phone confiscated over sh1.8b investigation

The committee said the phone will help in the investigation of accountability of sh1.8b meant for Corporate Social Investment (CSI) by the fund’s board.

The committee also confiscated the mobile phone belonging to Steven Mwanje, the fund’s chief finance officer.

The two phones were taken away by security officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) that, according to the committee chairperson, Mwine Mpaka, will investigate the genesis of the unaccountability of the money.

“I am going to hand over your phones to the CID; they will be taken for forensic analysis, and we are going to determine who exactly sent this, and whoever is determined to have sent it will be the person who came up with the budget,” he said.

Trouble started after the committee asked the NSSF management to account for sh1.8b that was allocated to the NSSF board for CSI.

Mwanje told the committee that whereas the sh1.8b had been approved for CSI, the accountability for sh800m, which was given to two workers unions such as the National Organisatuon for Trade Unions (NOTU) and the Central Organisation for Trade Unions (COFTU), was handed to the finance department.

According to the WhatsApp messages correspondences read by Mwine for the committee, Mwanje allegedly broke down the sh1.8b budget with Byarugaba May 4 2022, using his phone.

Despite confirming the ownership of the number through which the slide was shared with Byarugaba, Mwanje denied ever sending such a slide to Byarugaba.