MPs grill education officials over university funds

Officials from the education ministry on Thursday had trouble explaining why they had not released funds meant for the Mountains of the Moon and Busoga universities.

The officials led by the Minister of Education Janet Museveni were asked to explain why monies allocated to the two universities had not been transferred yet the financial year was coming to an end.

The parliamentary education committee chairman Jacob Opolot said several officials from the universities especially the founders had complained to the committee about the matter.

"Can we know why the ministry has not released the money to these institutions? These people including a minister have been coming here crying. We do not want them to continue coming here," Opolot said.

The ministry's permeant secretary, Alex Kakooza, however, informed the committee that the money (sh4.2b) for the universities was released to their accounts in March.

"We released the money to their accounts last month. The chairperson of the task force can bare me witness," Kakooza said.

Dr Pius Coxwell Achang, the task force committee chairperson confirmed the release and said the money that was to mainly cater for purchasing of cars, completing the construction of the buildings and other tasks.

The 3-man taskforce was formed to oversee the Mountains of the Moon transition from a private to a public institution in the next two years. Achang is the accreditation head at National Council for Higher Education.

The government in 2018 allocated funds to the two universities after President Yoweri Museveni directed the education ministry to takeover Mountains of the Moon and Busoga universities.

The President noted that although the government did not plan to take over the two private universities, there was a need to rescue students studying there.

"I am writing to direct you to take over two private universities which some of our people acting in good faith, started many years ago. The two universities are Mountains of the Moon and Busoga University," Museveni wrote to the education minister.

In 2017, the management of Mountains of the Moon University applied to the government to take it over and turn it into a public university.

Mountains of the Moon located in Fort Portal was established in 2005 by a team of eminent people from the Tooro region as a community university.

The university has, however, been grappling with challenges of paying staff salaries and improving infrastructure.

Busoga University, on the other hand, has been in the news over issues of closure and investigations over several irregularities.

The National Council for Higher Education revoked the university's licence and the government takeover aims at salvaging the university.