By BM
A confidential investigation has blown the lid off alleged widespread corruption and abuse of office inside the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA), the agency mandated to safeguard the retirement savings of millions of Ugandans.
A secret report, authored by a Special Committee of the URBRA Board and released in September 2024, reveals that top officials at the Authority, led by Chief Executive Officer Martin Nsubuga may have manipulated hiring processes, diverted government funds, and abused their positions for personal or political gain.
The report, which follows a whistleblower petition by former Senior Internal Auditor Edward Serukuma, paints a disturbing picture of a regulator in disarray: its internal controls weakened, procurement rules ignored, and leadership accused of acting with impunity.
According to the findings, the Directorate of Human Resource and Administration, which oversees staff recruitment, training, and general administrative operations, was at the center of multiple questionable activities.
These included irregular recruitment, suspicious payments to non-prequalified service providers, and the diversion of funds intended for staff welfare and public outreach activities.
What began as a petition targeting one official quickly evolved into a full-blown investigation implicating multiple departments across URBRA.
One of the most controversial findings involves the adjustment of job qualifications for the position of Manager Internal Audit allegedly made without Board approval and after internal candidates had already passed earlier stages of the recruitment process.
Serukuma, who had applied for the position, was seemingly sidelined when the minimum qualifications were quietly altered to disqualify him, raising serious concerns about transparency and fairness in the hiring process.
The report also highlights a payment of UGX 10 million to a personal bank account for administering job aptitude tests, a transaction carried out without using a prequalified recruitment firm.
Investigators described this as a blatant flouting of procurement rules, suggesting a deliberate effort to bypass oversight mechanisms.
Further scrutiny revealed that URBRA paid over UGX 51 million to an unapproved supplier for printer toner.
Meanwhile, more than UGX 500 million was spent on staff fuel in a single financial year, without documented Board approval or proper justification.
But perhaps most scandalous was the diversion of funds earmarked for Customer Service Week, a key public engagement activity.
The report found that the events were either never implemented or that the funds were redirected to sponsor unrelated initiatives such as the APSA Conference.
The Committee concluded that these incidents were not isolated but symptomatic of systemic mismanagement within the Authority. “The issues raised in the petition are not confined to one individual but expose deeper governance failures across the institution,” the report states.
It recommends urgent reforms, stronger oversight, and possible disciplinary action against implicated officers.
The fallout has already reached the highest levels of government.
In May this year (2025), President Yoweri Museveni directed the Head of Public Service, Lucy Nakyobe, to conduct an independent review of URBRA’s Chief Executive Officer, Martin Nsubuga, who is now under investigation for alleged financial mismanagement and leadership failures.
Notably, in May 2024, the URBRA Board declined to recommend Nsubuga for reappointment, citing the absence of a required Board resolution and growing concerns over his performance.
As the regulator of a sector holding over UGX 20 trillion in retirement assets, URBRA is expected to operate with the highest standards of integrity and professionalism.
Instead, this secret report reveals an institution plagued by questionable decisions, blurred lines of authority, and internal dysfunction.
For the millions of Ugandans relying on retirement savings to secure their futures, this breach of trust is not just an internal scandal, it’s a national concern.
This is the first episode in an investigative series examining the full depth of the URBRA scandal, based on exclusive access to the Board’s internal findings.
In the next installment, we reveal how UGX 682 million was spent on fuel in a short period of time, and who signed off on it. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
