The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Fort Portal, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mountains of the Moon University Transition Task Force-TTF will be ready to hand over its report by January 2021. The task force is mandated with overseeing the transition of the university from a private to a public institution.
The task force that was given a two year term in 2019 has reportedly completed 75% of the work. In 2015, the community applied to government to take over the private institution after hitting several bottlenecks which affected its operations.
In March 2018, President Yoweri Museveni directed the Education and Sports Ministry to work out modalities of taking over the university. The ministry appointed a four man taskforce led by Prof. Pius Coxwell Achang, the Institutional and Programme Accreditation head at National Council for Higher Education to oversee the transition.
He is deputized by Prof John M. Kasenene, the university vice chancellor. The other members are Dr. Edmond Kagambe, the acting task force secretary and Grace Kazooba Nyakahuma, a member of the task force. Among other things the task force is mandated to coordinate is the development of the master plan and strategic plan for the transformed public university, key policies, manuals, charters and statutes.
The taskforce is also mandated to come up with a name and coordinate the restructuring of the administrative and academic units to meet the National Development Plan. Prof. Kasenene told URN that they are optimistic that they will complete the assignment by January next year to enable both government and parliament to complete the final takeover process.
He said the validation exercise of the university staff has been completed and they are only waiting for the final report. Prof. Kasenene also says the team has completed the preparation of a master plan that involves zoning of infrastructure developments at the university.
Once submitted, the report will have to get approval from the cabinet, parliament and solicitor general for the final take over decision.
On dissenting voices questioning why the university has not involved teaching staff in the transition process, Prof. Kasesene said there a few members who were involved in writing of policy reports. He says extra staff was externally hired after their failure to get qualified individuals from the university staff to handle the technical work.
Prof. Kasenene also said that the institution agreed to halt payment of its staff starting with August since the key source of revenue who are students are still in the lockdown.
One of the staff who preferred anonymity blamed management for failure to advocate for staff salaries from government even when the Public Service Ministry approved the establishment of staff structures in the 2018/19 financial year.
The staffs also accuse the administration of downplaying their skills during the transition process yet they were involved in the curriculum development process. Another staff blamed the university administration for failing to communicate to them on the transition process and the course it was taking.
He says their concerns to the management have gone without reply. Prof. Kasenene says over Shillings 5 billion that is being referred to by the staff was earmarked for the transition work which means it can’t be diverted to staff payment.
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