Guild Representatives to the [Makerere Guild] Council (GRCs) of the defunct 82nd Guild have petitioned the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda to have consultations in the newly proposed Fees Policy halted until the general Students body reports back for the semester.
In a full report with reasons for the request to postpone consultations attached, the student leaders have informed the Prime Minister that there is no way this new policy can be welcomed by Students and prevent further strikes in the University when only about 2% of the Students have been consulted.
It is important to note that the consultative meeting held at the University was only attended by about 60 Students.
And in a rather new twist of events, the student leaders are also requesting the Premier to order for an external forensic audit into the University’s expenditure for the past ten years.
“The University raises about 450M UGX from the 10,000 UGX Guild Fees paid by every student, but the Guild works on a 210M UGX budget.
Where does the rest of the money go?” reads part of the petition.
Sections 63 & 64 of the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act provide for internal audit of this University at the end of every financial year to be tabled before parliament, but the lacunae in those sections is that they don’t subject this University to external forensic audit over a period of at least 5 years. So students don’t know the state of Makerere Finances.
Self styled Makerere political analyst Louis Namwanja Kizito, who has for long been championing the idea of an external forensic audit had this to say,
“Since Makerere University Administration are crying that they don’t have money, let them subject themselves to an external forensic audit first so that we know the real state of financial transactions in this University.”
We shall keep you abreast with the developments of this story as it grows on.
