MPs put Makerere's Prof Nawangwe on the spot over NIC deal

A section of members of parliament led by Western Youth MP Mwine Mpaka are demanding for an investigation into a deal that saw Makerere University allegedly lose up to Shs 8 billion.

In 2010, work at Uganda's most prominent university was paralysed for weeks after a standoff over Shs 16.7 billion top up allowance between Makerere University teaching staff and the National Insurance Company (NIC).

For long, NIC was the custodian of the Makerere staff provident fund. After the disagreement, Makerere agreed to set up its internal fund.

Now, MPs led by Mpaka have unearthed documents saying the process of this disengagement was riddled with irregularities.

They claimed that Nawangwe and other university officials signed an out of court settlement with NIC without consulting the government attorney general. This led to a loss of Shs 8 billion, they argued.

Mpaka said: "I have three documents with me showing that the vice chancellor Nawangwe tasked the then  university secretary Charles Barugahare to sign on the consent judgment without further delay between MUK and NIC before the end of the year."

The MPs told journalists that they want a select committee of parliament be instituted to investigate how the university and NIC resolved the Shs 16.7 billion lecturers top up allowance saga yet government had borrowed the said monies from the consolidated fund to cool down the impasse.

They also claimed that as part of the deal, the university exchanged one of its properties for only Shs 8.7 billion.