Makerere University Vice Chancellor John Ddumba Ssentamu at a recent graduation ceremony. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa
Kampala. Makerere
University has accumulated debts of about Shs125b in unpaid pension
arrears to staff, incentives, utility bills and teaching materials, Vice
Chancellor John Ddumba Ssentamu has said.
“We have pension arrears,
teaching expenses, unpaid suppliers and utility bills. The staff are
demanding their incentive which we don’t have now,” Prof Ddumba said in
an interview on Thursday.
Asked whether the university can sustain
payment of the incentive to staff introduced three years ago after a
number of strikes in demand for a pay rise, Prof Ddumba said: “If we
have not paid six months, what does it imply?” He then declined to give
details.
However, the former Makerere University deputy vice
chancellor in charge of finance and administration, Prof Sandy Stevens
Tickodri-Togboa, insists that it was a mistake for the institution to
commit itself to this payment because they did not have avenues of
generating the money. He argued that what students pay is much less than
what it costs to train them.
Mr Bruce Balaba Kabaasa who headed a
committee that introduced the incentive, said it was time for the staff
to forego it after government increased their pay last year.
Increasing salaries
Mr
Muhammed Kiggundu, the academic staff chairperson, on Thursday
explained that when the President promised to increase their salaries to
Shs15m per month for a professor in 2013, it was expected to be
effected immediately. However, the Finance ministry did not have the
block figure and promised to pay it in three phases starting 2015/2016
financial year.
Mr Kiggundu acknowledged that all public universities
received Shs50b from government to enhance their pay and that already
another Shs50b was reflected in the current Budget.
He added that
they have now agreed with management to start deducting their incentive
by 25 per cent starting this month which will be used to offset some of
the debts. “But we will continue demanding from the university the six
months they have not paid since it was in another financial year,” Mr
Kiggundu said.
The university pays Shs2.4b per month to staff as
incentive. Before the incentive was introduced, a lecturer in College of
Humanities was earning Shs2.9m.
But this has increased to
Shs4.8m before tax in the new government schedule. A professor who is
earning Shs3.5m monthly will be getting Shs8.3m.
Prime Minister
Ruhakana Rugunda said in a separate interview last week on the
university’s indebtedness: “That is not a big problem. The university
should handle. We cannot go into indebtedness now. It requires to be
thoroughly examined; to look at the issues to see what government should
handle and see what the university should handle. No, government can’t
take on the entire wage bill. We want to examine issues first. We don’t
want premature commitments.”
CREDIT: UG-NATION MEDIA
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