The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is to start collecting all the tuition and other fees paid by students in public Universities in abid to curb misuse of funds by management.
The directive was given by the Ministry of Finance and a single account which will be run by URA is yet to be opened on which students will send-in all their dues.
Acoording to the ministry of finance spokesperson, Mr Jim Mugunga, said that the new strategy will help fight the vice of ghost students, bureaucracy and costs in public universities.
“We realised that there was abuse of funds in our institutions of learning because some of the tuition is being collected but not used. Some tuition is stolen while some money just disappears. So, let URA collect this money, let this money come as government revenue and let it be budgeted for and appropriated,” Mr Mugunga told Daily Monitor by telephone yesterday.
He decried the current system that makes it difficult for government to do followups on complaints of money laundering and fraud.
“Once we get to know how much each institution is collecting, we shall facilitate timely release of money back to the universities to take care of students, staff and institutional support,
“Tuition is actually government revenue and not money that belongs to universities. Historically, when revenue collection was not streamlined, the ministry had allowed institutions to collect on its behalf as we built internal capacities and get most institutions networked and strengthened. URA is, therefore, ready and the most suitable agency to handle this task,” ” he added.