KAMPALA – Former employees of the defunct Nakumatt Supermarket have petitioned Parliament over their unpaid entitlements following the closure of the store two years ago.
The employees led by Dennis Angura, presented their petition to the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga on Monday 25.
The petitioners said that Nakumatt Uganda registered a savings and credit cooperative society (SACCO) with a member of over 600 employees whose savings were never paid.
“We need your help to recover the little savings we had in the SACCO worth shs200 million. Some of us have salary arrears, National Social Security Fund money and our terminal benefits,” Angura said.
The regional chain supermarket was closed shop over two years ago after the Uganda Revenue Authority audited it and found it had due tax arrears.
Angura added that Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) had not helped them even after selling the assets.
“URSB who is the receiver has not helped us at all in recovering this money. Every time we engage them, they give us different people to talk to and the last time we met, they promised to arrest us,” he said.
The Secretary-General of the Uganda Hotels, Food, Tourism, Supermarkets and Allied Workers Union, Stephen Mugole says he has withdrawn from following the issues sighting unfairness in the way UCHUMI closure was handled by URSB.
“URSB has sold off the Nakumatt assets and we see them in other supermarkets yet they are not paying our arrears. We have information that the UCHUMI money was mishandled by one of the top officials who banked the monies in a personal account,” he added.
Kadaga said that it was the duty of the receiver to collect all outstanding debts and pay the arrears before doing anything else.
“It is over two years and the money hasn’t been recovered? I will ask the receiver to give us a written update on the recovery. I will also write to the Minister of Gender to find out what the Union is doing,” the Speaker said adding that, . ‘if I get all these responses before Christmas, I will call you back and give you an update’.
