Kyambogo University has blamed the failure by the University to collect Shs23.2bn in tuition from students on the decision by Government to close all education institutions as means to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The revelation was made by Acting University Secretary, Arthur Katongole while appearing before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during the scrutiny of the 2021 Auditor General report.
According to the audit report, the University projected to collect Shs77.146bn in Non Tax Revenue from tuition fees of the students, but only Shs40.930bn was collected by the University, something auditors argue negatively affects the implementation of planned activities at government level.
Katongole informed Parliament that the University would re-open and run normal academic years, however, the University was reopened in the month of November 2020 to final year students and in January 2021 to continuing students and the University was able to collect an additional Shs19bn.
“The failure to collect the balance is attributed to the after effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and in November, that is when we opened and our students usually pay during examinations. As we speak, we no longer run as per academic years and because of that, we are not moving as we are supposed to move so that has caused us a problem, but we hope by next year, we would have stablised,” said Katongole.
He also attributed the deficit between the Shs23Bn that was uncollected and the Shs19Bn that was later collected to the refusal by some students to take up their places at the University after admission, in preference for other higher education facilities, saying the revenue projections are made on basis of the students admitted, and students who refuse to join the University impacts on the revenue collected.
Michael Mawanda (Igara East) asked the University to explain if students were ordered to pay tuition even for the time they were out of University, to which Katongole replied saying the students were only charged for the services the University offered.
The University Secretary also decried the low staffing levels at Kyambogo University that stand at only 31%, and despite the University agreeing to a deal with the Ministry of Finance to have the staffing levels bridged with payment of Shs6Bn annually for five years, the University is yet to receive penny, something that has prompted the University to resort to hiring private lecturers, a trend they say is unsustainable.
“We have already transited to the new structure, we had the old structure which came into existence in 2005, so we thought it was prudent under the guidance of the Ministry of Finance to work out a new structure. The structure was approved by the University Council and subsequently by Ministry of Public Service. We validated all the teaching and non teaching staff and that exercise puts us at 31%, we have 510 teaching staff and 513 non teaching staff bringing total to 1023 staff,” explained Katongole.
The University had an approved budget of Shs217.76bn out of which, Shs207.22bn was released, but only Shs124.5bn was utilised by the University, with a big chunk of this was spent on payment of staff salaries which accounted for Shs85.7bn, General expenses Shs9.2bn, communications Shs800M, Utility and property expenses Shs4.8bn.
The other costs included; supplies and services Shs3bn, Professional Services Shs1.3bn, Insurance and licenses Shs100M, Travel and Transport Shs1bn, Maintenance Shs1.8bn, consumption of property, plant and equipment Shs4.8bn, other expenses Shs10.3bn and domestic arrears paid Shs1.7bn.
