The Commission of Administrative Justice (CAJ) has asked the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to publish its annual financial reports within 21 days, to allow taxpayers and contributors to scrutinise how billions of shillings collected by the State agency are invested or used.
The CAJ directive, via a letter dated April 22, 2025, follows a petition filed seeking to have NSSF disclose the information and publish it on its website.
NSSF has not published the annual reports for the last three financial years, with the latest report on its website being the one for the year ending June 2021.
Failure to make the annual reports has denied millions of workers who make monthly contributions for their retirement a chance to scrutinise collections and also how their money is being invested.
NSSF has since February 2023 posted bigger collections on enhanced monthly contributions by workers, pushing the average monthly nettings by more than five times to Sh6.5 billion from Sh1.4 billion.
“This is therefore to request you to respond to this letter within 21 days thereof, indicating the corrective measures put in place by your office to proactively disclose and regularly update the NSSF annual report and audited financial statements,” CAJ said in the letter to NSSF.
Publishing the reports would reveal the billions of shillings that NSSF is collecting from workers and how it is investing the cash. The information would also disclose the number of contributors.
Salaried workers were from February 2023 slapped with higher NSSF contributions with the rates for the lowest worker rising to Sh600 from Sh200 while those for the high earners jumped from Sh1,080 to Sh2,160.
The higher contributions saw NSSF net an additional Sh10.95 billion in the year to June 2023 with contributions jumping to Sh26.87 billion, reflecting the impact of the new rates.
Under the new contributions scale, the deductions are to be raised to specific amounts or percentages over the first four years.
But the new contributions sparked uproar from workers whose payslips took a hit, with scrutiny on the agency growing.
State entities are required to proactively make public their annual and also their audited reports for every financial year. The reports are to be published on their websites and are meant to promote good governance and transparency in the expenditure of taxpayer funds.
“The commission opines that the publishing and publishing of NSSF audited financial statements will enable citizens to access information, scrutinise actions and decisions of duty bearers and conduct social audits thereby promoting principles of good governance,” CAJ added in the letter.
It remains to be seen whether NSSF will comply with the directive before mid-next month. A disgruntled petitioner can go to the High Court if NSSF breaches CAJ’s order.
