By Annet Nakanwagi and Brendah Akankwatsa,
FORT PORTAL CITY:
The teaching staff including Heads of Departments and Deans of Schools at Mountains of the Moon University (MMU) in Fort Portal Kabarole district have laid down their tools over non-payment of salaries and delayed government takeover.
In a letter addressed to the University Vice Chancellor Prof John Kasenene, the staff say they have not been receiving their salaries, something that has left them financially constrained.
“MMU failed to pay staff for 9 months (July 2020 March 2021) and no official communication has been issued to stall about when these arrers will be paid,” reads part of the petition by the staff.
They also protest the delayed government take over of the university, saying this has stalled many things including staff promotion, research funding, and the general development of the university.
It should be noted that in 2013, the University Board of Trustees reasoned that for the continued effective operation of the MMU, it was necessary that government takes over its administration and operations.
The demands never yielded much until 2015 when the University wrote to President Yoweri Museveni, formally requesting for the same. In the same year, Museveni directed the Education Ministry to start the take over of MMU and Kabale University.
In 2019, the Ministry of Education and Sports appointed a four-member committee dubbed the Transition Task Force (TTF) headed by Dr Pius Achanga, to prepare the institution to convert into a public one.
But staff say that even when government promised that the total take over would be in July 2020, this has never been honored.
In March 2020, the then Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education and Sports, Alex Kakooza visited the university and disclosed that the takeover would not be possible in July, 2020 but would instead take place effective 1st July 2021 without fail and requested staff to be patient.
The staff further say during the MMU top and middle managers retreat on 6th to 8th June 2021 in Ibanda, they were left in shock to learn that the takeover of MMU was still not possible in July 2021.
Again, in a Zoom meeting of 21st July, 2021 to discuss the architectural plans of the new building of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, the chairperson of the TTF Dr Achanga promised another date of MMU takeover by government as probably September, 2021”.
“Staff members have repeatedly been asked by TTF to be patient and indeed we have been for the last 6 years (i.e since 2015). But now, TTF no longer has moral authority to advise staff to be patient when they (members of TTF) are already earning government salaries accompanied with various employment benefits and staff are doing all the donkey work to sustain the university on a miserable consolidated salary,” staff impatiently noted.
They also accuse the TTF of fronting infrastructural development and not their welfare, adding that this should immediately be stopped because investing in manpower is better than putting all the attention to buildings.
They have now given the university management and the TTF a two weeks ultimatum to address their challenges, one by one, or they declare another course of action.
Efforts to reach the university spokesperson about this matter have been futile since her known contacts were off by the time of writing this article.
On June 1, Prof Kasenene told management in a press conference at the University that the take over process was on course but expressed displeasure that it had over delayed.
Mountains of the University was started in 2005 as a community university. Over the time, the university has been hit by financial challenges which has affecting its operations, prompting management to apply for government take over.
