The National Social Security Authority last year received more than US$2 million in dividends from companies it has invested in. This revelation came from NSSA general manager Mr James Matiza as he dismissed corruption allegations in sections of the local media that pointed to underhand dealings in some of the investments the authority has made.

Mr Matiza said in 2011, NSSA received more than US$2 million in dividends from companies it had invested in. He said NSSA did not control how a particular investment performs.

“The stock exchange has not generally been performing well. Some investments had performed well, while others have not. “This is something other pension funds have experienced with their investments.

“As the operator of a pension fund, we are not looking for quick returns but had a long-term investment horizon,” said Mr Matiza.

The corruption allegations suggested abuse of pensioners’ funds. Some of the allegations were that NSSA had acquired shares in listed companies without going to the stock market.

“It displays ignorance of the regulations governing the stock exchange since no shares in a listed company could be purchased without going through the stock exchange,” said Mr Matiza.

He added that NSSA had investment policy guidelines that it followed, for instance, investments had to be approved by the board. “When the board approved the purchase of a building, an independent valuation was sought before the purchase was made.”

The NSSA boss dismissed the report commissioned by the Labour and Social Services Ministry in April 2010 and was an investigation into NSSA operations in 2009, when a different board was in place.

However, he also hinted that the current board was not privy to the report that was produced by the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate (NECI).

“It is difficult to comment on a report that we have not seen. We presume that had the minister felt there were issues that required some action from NSSA the minister would have communicated this to the NSSA board.

“It certainly seems inconceivable that if the minister had been satisfied that there was, as the newspaper alleges, rampant corruption, sleaze and fraud at NSSA.

“The fact is that these are old allegations pertaining to 2009. The external auditors were satisfied with the manner in which the transactions in that year and subsequent years were undertaken. They certified the financial statements for 2009 without any qualification,” said Mr Matiza.

There were also allegations of tribalism in appointments going back to 2008.

“I am surprised that these same allegations keep surfacing within the same newspaper stable, when the external auditors are satisfied with the way transactions have been handled. The transactions that the NECI looked into that were sanctioned by the board took place during a different board’s term of office and the responsible minister has not considered it necessary to take any further action after receiving the NECI’s report,” said Mr Matiza.