Sacked Makerere university staff will be forced to refund salaries- Prof.Nawangwe

Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe has said all the staff recently sacked by the university recently will be forced to refund salaries and all monies they got erroneously.

The Makerere University Appointments Board recently sacked a total of 45 senior staff over a number of reasons.

Addressing journalists on Thursday, Nawangwe said a decision has been made to force all the sacked staff refund money they got in form of salaries for the period they were away without official leave.

“A decision was made to recover money which was erroneously paid to the sacked staff,” Prof. Nawangwe said on Thursday.

Describing the decision to sack the staff as inevitable, Prof.Nawangwe said a number of them had absconded from duty for a long time whereas others were expelled because of indiscipline.

“Some of the cases had been committed as back as 10 years ago whereas other cases included staff who had absconded from duty and got jobs from other institutions like KCCA and UNRA. These never informed us and so we had to relieve them of their duties,”Prof.Nawangwe said.

He said other staff had gone for studies but ended up getting jobs abroad and never informed management but continued receiving salaries.

The Makerere University Vice Chancellor said contracts for some members including Dr.Stella Nyanzi had expired and had not been renewed noting that sacking them was inevitable noting that despite the expiry, they continued getting salaries.

“Anybody who received money they were not supposed to get will have to refund it and we shall get them from wherever they are,” Prof. Nawangwe said.

The 45 sacked staff early this week petitioned the speaker of Parliament asking for investigations into the circumstances under which they were relieved of their duties by the university.

The affected staff were subjected to a sham disciplinary procedure that culminated in their suspensions, termination or dismissal,” the petition reads in part.

On petitioning Parliament, the Makerere University Vice Chancellor slammed the sacked lecturers for ‘disturbing’ the ever busy speaker.

“When you come to Makerere, you are educated enough to know the procedures that you go through to address such issues which include going to the university council which has a staff tribunal that can sit and decided on the matter,” Prof. Nawangwe fumed.

“It was not a good thing for them to run to the speaker of parliament who is ever busy but if she asks, we shall explain ourselves.”