WILL MAKERERE VC; BARYAMUREEBA SURVIVE THE PROBE?

Makerere VC Barya faces probe over grant

I know it is a fight over the Vice Chancellor’s job, but I am not worried because all the documents are there [to prove the project’s successful implementation," says Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, Makerere VC
By Tabu Butagira (email the author)
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Posted Friday, January 27 2012 at 00:00

The Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, is being investigated over allegations that he mismanaged a Dutch-funded scholarship scheme for PhD students worth Euros 5.7m (Shs17 billion).
But the VC in an interview on Wednesday denied any wrongdoing, saying both internal and external auditors evaluated the project expenses without raising accountability queries.
President Museveni is expected to appoint a substantive VC for Makerere University soon.
The Dutch Embassy in Kampala said it already raised the anomalies with its Foreign Affairs Ministry that in turn notified the implementing agency to commence inquiries.
“As the embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands strongly values accountability and transparency, we have followed up on these allegations,” Mr Melle Leenstra, the Political and Public Affairs officer, wrote in reply to our email enquiries.
He added: “We understand that NUFFIC (The Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education) is investigating the issue. We expect that the applicable Ugandan authorities will duly investigate this matter.”

Makerere’s former Faculty of Computing (CIT) hosted the four-year project to help academic staff from four Ugandan public universities “strengthen ICT training and research capacity”.

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Prof. Baryamureeba coordinated the project that closed on May 30, 2011.

Suspect handling of the project came to light following revelations that a March 4, 2008 CIT Appointments and Promotions Committee meeting chaired by Prof. Baryamureeba as the faculty Dean, waived tuition for the 20 beneficiaries yet NUFFIC disbursed Euros160, 000 (Shs480m) for the same purpose.

Insufficient funding?
The VC said they used the Dutch funds – an average of Euros2,000 per PhD student each year - to pay full tuition for students from other universities and functional fees for Makerere University staff on the scholarship.
The balance of the money was credited to the faculty account and used for paying supervisors and buying stationery, he said.
Prof. Baryamureeba said: “The reason we waived the tuition was because the scholarship funds were insufficient.”
University records show a number of the students are yet to complete their PhD programmes months after the scholarship programme wound up.
This newspaper has established that nine of the beneficiaries have applied to the Directorate of Graduate Studies for between $12, 000 -15, 000 (Shs28.7m-35.9m) of Carnegie Corporation grants.
One of the students, Ms Fridah Katushemererwe, a NUFFIC beneficiary, for instances states in her August 15, 2011 application that her PhD research project delayed due to “lack of funds for both tuition and research”, claiming she even took a dead academic year in 2007.
It was not clear how a student offered a scholarship and later rewarded with tuition waiver could have been in such financial distress to take a dead year or fail to conduct research.
After their applications for Carnegie grants were turned down, Dr Josephine Nabukenya, the Dean of the School of Computing & IT, on October 6, 2011, wrote on behalf of the PhD students to the deputy directorate of Graduate Studies, Dr George Nasinyama, pleading for financial assistance to them