In November 2016, Makerere University academic staff under the umbrella body MUASA laid down their tools shortly after President Yoweri Museveni ordered the closure of the university and appointed a Visitation Committee headed by Dr. Abel Rwendire who since passed on to study the sticky issues. On 29th December 2017, the Committee officially handed over its report to the President at his country home in Rwakitura-Kiruhura district. Some of the findings of the 370-page report indicated that Makerere was heavily indebted to a tune of about 130 billion shillings. According to the Auditors, University Authorities moved to clear the debt with a repayment schedule of 73 billion shillings. But the Auditors revealed that 9.5 billion shillings could not be traced in the payables. The Visitation Committee cites fraudulent intentions in the transactions and recommends an investigation.
When the University Management called a press briefing to speak on the report, they did not give away much. “And those responses must be studied properly and the responses must be appropriate. You will appreciate that I cannot just come off curve and comment on the issues that may affect one of the best universities in the world.” Said, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe – Vice Chancellor, Makerere University. Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe announced that he had set a Committee to study the report and would give a comprehensive response after the team completed its work. “To draft the formal University Response to the report of the Visitation Committee. The Committee will be chaired Prof. William Bazeyo the acting Deputy Vice Chancellor Finance and Administration.”
Despite the heavy indebtedness, the Visitation Committee discovered that the university failed to use over 48 billion Uganda shillings. According to the Committee, the university also failed to clear taxes worthy 18.5 billion shillings. The Visitation Committee also unasked 12 bank accounts in Makerere University names in Standard Chartered Bank and Centenary Bank but these were not disclosed to the Auditors. The University Management denied knowledge of these accounts. The Visitation Committee tasked the Inspector General of Government to investigate these accounts and establish how they were opened up and the individuals operating them brought to book. “Maybe that’s the case if that’s what they found. If it’s the funds, finding the solution to fix that problem of mismanaging the funds that would be number one. How do you find, how do you fix that problem of management of the funds because probably if there were no mismanagement of funds there could not have been such a strike where members of staff would have demanded their incentives.” Said, Dr. Mohammad Kiggundu – Outgoing Chairman MUASA.
At the time the Committee was established in 2016, the Vice-Chancellor was Prof. Dumba Sentamu. The current Vice-Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe was his Deputy in-charge of Finance and Administration. The Outgoing Chairman of the Makerere University Academic Staff Association Dr. Mohammad Kiggundu told NTV that the Visitation Committee could have left out the salient issues that cause strikes. “Makerere we should look at what works for us but the two or three things are if you need to fix the problem for Makerere University; identify a funding model where the government is not the sole funder because they cannot, number two the government should serve the seating managers.” At the time of the MUASA strike, the lecturers were demanding unpaid incentive arrears totaling to 14 billion shillings. Dr. Kiggundu was opposed to the proposal by the Visitation Committee to decongest Makerere University by transferring Undergraduate programmes to other public universities and institutions. “You say you go to Kyambogo, Kyambogo has not fixed their problem.” “This is exporting problems, we warn this is exporting problems. And with this, we need to sit on board with the Ministry of Education before a white paper is made.”
