John Sserwaniko
18 July 2007
Makerere — Management at Makerere University is probing circumstances under which the guild cabinet sanctioned the opening of a clandestine guild account, using forged signatures of the top university officials.
Daily Monitor has learnt that trouble began last week when Guild Finance Minister Mathew Nviri and Vice President Haruna Ssekabira walked into Stanbic Bank Wandegeya branch to open a new bank account for the guild.
They reportedly produced documents indicating the two top university officials-vice Chancelor Livingstone Luboobi and Dean of Students John Ekuddu-had okayed the opening of a new account.
"On perusing the supporting documents, the bank manager realised my signature was different from the one he knew. He suspected it could have been forged. He also wasn't convinced about why the guild would need a second account different from the one already existing. He called me to verify," Mr Ekuddu told Daily Monitor yesterday.
"That is when I learnt of the impropriety. Action is definitely going to be taken. It can be anything from dismissal to prosecution, depending on how I will be advised."
He said on being caught, the two claimed they had approval of the entire guild cabinet.
"There is money, over Shs600 million, which is supposed to come from the American embassy to fund guild activities. It should have come two years ago but was delayed. Thinking management didn't know about it, they have been trying to open a parallel account to which the dean of students and the vice chancellor aren't signatory so that they quietly share it among themselves," a top university official told Daily Monitor on condition of anonymity.
Saying it was a "very complicated case of fraud," Mr Ekuddu said he had asked Guild President Susan Abbo and her cabinet to write personal statements explaining their role in the scam before handing the matter to police.
"We shall call in police but we are setting up a committee first to scrutinise their statements to establish whether the two had approval of the entire guild or acted as individuals," said Mr Ekuddu, adding that Mr Nviri had written to him seeking to be pardoned.
Mr Ssekabira, however, said; "There is a clique in the University Council members who hate me, otherwise I am innocent." Ms Abbo said the two acted in their individual capacity and that the entire students' guild shouldn't be held accountable.
"We are in a meeting right now. We are coming up with a position to isolate them as individuals," she said. Meanwhile, Guild Speaker Dennis Namara said he had received many petitions from students calling for the censure of the guild president and her 24-member executive.
"We have instituted an inquiry as Guild Representative Council (GRC) to establish if it was an institutional decision. The position is that the president and her cabinet should go. They have ashamed the guild," he said, adding that an emergency GRC session would "soon be called to commence censure proceedings."
Ordinarily, the students' guild operates one bank account (at Stanbic Makerere Branch) to which the dean of students and vice chancellor are signatories. Others are the guild president and finance minister.
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