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.

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Janet Kataha Museveni, the minister of education and sports, while addressing parliament on Tuesday August 09, 2016 said that one of the demands the of non-teaching staff was for government not to use part of their increment to fund  the new universities.

She said the government has decided to comply with by looking for new alternatives to fund Soroti Lira and Kabale universities.

Some of Makerere University’s non-teaching staff in a recent meeting.

Museveni also assured Parliament that government has started a process to harmonize all salary structure in all public universities by the second quarter taking into account their qualifications as it was requested by the non-teaching staff.

However, this didn’t amuse some of the members of parliament who demanded for the minister to explain where she is going to get the money to fund for the three universities at the same time pay for the arrears of non-teaching staff in all public universities.

State minister for planning, David Bahati informed parliament that government plans to request for a supplementary budget to fund the salaries as they have a provision in the law which allows them to take a surplus of three percent of the national budget.

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Parliament has approved three new public universities as government is put on task to explain the criteria used to recommend only the three universities and leaving out others. The new public universities have been approved after thorough scrutiny by the National Council for Higher Education. The approved universities include Kabale University in Kabale District, Lira University in Lira District and Soroti University in Soroti District.

The Minister for Education Jessica Alupo said that the new universities will equitably expand higher education to undergraduate and post graduate levels and develop human resources appropriate for the transformation and development of Uganda. She said that these universities will provide teaching and learning to all students admitted to the universities and to undertake basic and applied research critical to national development and to stimulate skills development in Uganda.

The Minister of State for Science and Technology, Professor Togboa Tikodri said that these universities will commence in teaching and research of programmes in I.C.T, public health, medicine, engineering science, teacher education, agriculture among others. He said that with a view to bridge the much needed skills gap in science and technology, it is anticipated that these universities will play a key role in developing our communities and transforming our societies towards achieving our vision 2040.

The Woman MP for Napak district Naomi Nyomera said that government should consider creating a public university in Karamoja region so that the region moves together with the others in terms of education standards. Members of Parliament also urged government to create Namasagali, Bunyoro, Rwenzori and Karamoja public universities.

The Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda says government supports access to education; it supports universities creation in all parts of the country. He said that both universities shall be established in the financial year 2017/18 to have viable public universities after being evaluated by the National Council for Higher Education.

He added that even other areas like Rwenzori and Karamoja regions will be examined for public universities

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The group said that government should enhance their salary because their absence affects the work of the teaching staff yet they earn little. The group also said it is unfair for government to only increase the salary of academic staff leaving out non-teaching staff that make the universities run. They asked the parliament through the Parliamentary Committee of Public Service and Local Government chaired by Grace Kwiyucwiny to prevail over government to provide 37 billion shillings for their salary enhancement.

Workers Member of Parliament Arinaitrwe Rwakajara said it’s not fair for government to only consider the academic staff yet the non-teaching staff are equally important.

The number of Non-teaching staff in all public universities is over 4000 from universities like Gulu University, Makerere University, Mbarara University, Kyambogo University, Muni University, Soroti University among others

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