The Observer (Kampala)
Shifa Mwesigye
13 March 2008
Kampala — Walking through the main gate of Kyambogo University, the basket ball and valley ball courts to your right that were bustling with activity only last week, are now kept company by the blowing wind and dust.
The heavy footsteps of students rushing for lectures have been replaced by dead silence in the heat of the afternoon, and a lingering smell from the cars torched by students shortly before the university was summarily closed.
The university closure follows years of acrimony caused by academic staff aggrieved over salaries. The students had given the university administration until Wednesday last week to solve the grievances, but this didn't happen.
"We have just paid tuition fees for this semester," they pleaded in a letter to the administration. With their demands not met by the stated date, Kyambogo students went on rampage, burning cars, destroying other property, and ransacking businesses of the university's neighbours. The resulting anarchy at the campus forced the government to close the university.
Salary scales
The lecturers' grievances started in 2005 when President Museveni directed the three ministries of Education, Finance, Planning and Economic Development, and Public Service to work out a salary enhancement scheme for academic staff in public universities to start in the 2004-2005 financial year.
At that time, the integration of Uganda Polytechnic Kyambogo (UPK), Uganda National Institute of Special Education (UNISE), and Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo (ITEK) into Kyambogo University had not been concluded. Therefore the three institutes had different methods of paying theirs lecturer.
"We couldn't pay using a specific scale while integration was still going on. We decided that payment be made according to qualifications until the integration was completed," explained James Bulenzibuto, the Public Relations Manager of Kyambogo University.
However, in November 2007 the Auditor General queried this mode of payment. He said the system was contrary to Public Service and university standing orders of paying staff according to scales and grades.
"I advise the accounting officer to streamline salary structure, that higher rank regardless of qualifications the higher the salary of staff to avoid conflict and lack of harmony," Muwanga wrote in a letter a copy of which The Weekly Observer has seen.
This is where the current strike was born. When payments were made according to the AG's recommendation, some 109 lecturers' salaries went up, while those of 331 lecturers came down.
The lecturers, united under their umbrella body - KYUASA - reacted with a strike on Friday last week. "We are only implementing what the Auditor General and the President advised. It's the law and if someone responsible doesn't fulfil the law, then they will have questions to answer," Bulenzibuto says.
'Enhancement' cash
Explaining the cause of the stand-off, Victor Lacoro, the chairman KYUASA, says the government gave Kyambogo a salary enhancement of Shs 560 million, Shs 280 million of which was handed over in December last year, and yet this money has never been paid to staff.
But Bulenzibuto says that the lecturers were paid their enhancement money only that it did not tally with what the President had approved.
"In fact the AG queried the over expenditure on salaries based on funds provided for salaries," he explained.
Lacoro also says that when the merger was completed in 2001, the university management and council put in place an administrative structure but never bothered to put in place a salary structure.
"Now management is trying to harmonise salaries by reducing salaries of 331 academic staff and increasing salaries of 109 staff using the money deducted from the 331 staff; this is not right," he says.
The highest paid lecturer at Kyambogo earns a gross salary of Shs 1,854,000 million, while the lowest paid earns a gross of Shs 1,331,000, down from Shs 1,505,000.
KYUASA members also want the university to remember the High Court's directive that the university complies with the Constitution and the Tertiary Institutions Act as amended in 2003 while recruiting and appointing staff. The court ruled that lecturers at the same level earn the same payment.
While addressing graduands at the university's fourth graduation only last month, the acting Vice Chancellor, Dr. Basiima Mpandey, said a court case filed by two members of staff was detrimental to the institution.
"Issues of concern by the staff of the university relating to appointments and promotions cannot be addressed because of a court case filed against the university by two members of staff," Mpandey complained.
KYUASA's Lacoro claims that the new salary scheme was approved only by the acting University Bursar, Richard Tebandeke, and acting Accounting Officer, Edward Kasolo Kimule. The Vice Chancellor and his deputy were reportedly not involved.
KYUASA wants salaries to be paid according to ranks or appointment levels, and staff to be fitted into different salary notches within the same salary scale, based on their seniority or years of service.
"You can't put someone who has been here for 30 years with a person who has been here for three years, even if they are both professors. That is an abuse," Lacoro argues.
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