By Alusine Fullah
Several sources have reached out to FORUM NEWSPAPER that the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) has embezzled all the funds that were provided for the construction of 10 campus hostels and five thousand (5,000) affordable Housing Units across the country. A closed source from NASSIT revealed: “On 10th March 2022 NASSIT signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NASSIT and the China Gansu International Corporation for Economic and Technical Cooperation (CGICOP) for the construction of 10 campus hostels for students and five thousand (5,000) affordable Housing Units across the country. 
In that occasion, the Director General of NASSIT, Mohamed Fuaad Daboh signed that project that worth billions of dollars. To be frank, even a kitchen has not been built. All the funds have been chopped…”
Legally, section 25 (2) of the NASSIT Act states that every employer of an establishment shall pay for each month in respect of each worker…” Section 31 (a) invokes that an employer who fails to pay NASSIT for his/her employee shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding Le5,000,00(OL) or imprisonment for a fine term not exceeding three months or to both fine and imprisonment. In line with that, several sources have reached out FORUM NEWSPAPER in several occasions that: NASSIT especially the office of the Director General is in the habit of receiving HUGE bribes from employers in the detriment of the poor employees. Our Sources said: “There are thousands of employers who do not pay NASSIT fees for their employees. Instead they prefer to give huge bribes to NASSIT just to beat down their (employers) legal mandate…”
Apart from the above, going through the just published Audit Report, NASSIT also has a grim record. The Audit Service Sierra Leone audited the National Social Security and Insurance Trust. During the course of the auditing, Audit Sierra Leone found out that the foregoing amount of money was inappropriately managed by the commission, NASSIT. The report states that there is a problem of non-submission of key investment documents. It states:
“Non-submission of Key Investment Documents The following documents were not made available for inspection: i) Investment property worth SLE368, 848,581 ii) Updated investment appraisals for both completed investment property and investment property under construction. iii) Updated Financial Statements, Strategic and Business Plans, Memorandum and Article of Association, Share of Profit/Returns on Investment as proof of successful operations of its Associate and Joint Ventures Investments worth SLE22, 132,305. In the absence of these documents, we were unable to ascertain the valuation, profitability and returns on investment for the period under review. Debenture agreements/deeds for total corporate debentures worth SLE140, 526,247 were also not submitted for inspection. We were therefore unable to determine the redeemable period, interest rate and returns on these investments.”
Responding to the Audit Service’s observations, NASSIT responded that the concerns of the auditors’ risks and recommendations… The Trust will ensure that updated appraisals are carried out on all completed investments with the view of making them viable so as to generate the returns expected of them.
The report further notes that there have been huge poor management of investments in Subsidiaries and Debentures. The report reads: “We observed that the investments in subsidiaries worth SLE513, 897,148 were either not managed, controlled or effectively monitored to ensure profitable and positive returns on investment to the Trust.” Moreover, the report also notes that insurance cover certificate for property, plant and equipment with the exception of land and motor vehicles worth SLE123, 983,372 were not provided to the audit team for inspection. NASSIT responded that the Trust will ensure that insurance cover is provided for all of its property, plants and equipment.
As a credible and ethical medium, we try very hard to reach out the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) to get the institution’s side of this story, however, all efforts proved futile.
