Public Universities’ Bank Accounts to Close as URA takes over Fees Collection

At the end of April, public Universities in Uganda were shaken by the notice from the the Ministry of Finance directing  Uganda Revenue Authority(URA) to takeover the tuition collection of the Universities.

According to the Ministry of Finance  spokesperson, Mr Jim Mugunga, the new development will help fight the vice of ghost students, bureaucracy and costs in public universities.

Well, the directive seem to have taken effect as the Kyambogo University Vice Chancellor Prof. Eli Katunguka, while at the the launch of the Staff Insurance Scheme said that all the University bank accounts are to be closed soon.

“All fees collection accounts in all public universities will be closed since our students are going to start sending money to one account of URA. We are just waiting for official communication and we close the accounts because it will be useless to keep them dormant,” Prof Katunguka said.

Prof. Katunguka however showed concern that government University have not yet been informed about the procedures of the URA collection.

He also added that the development may lead to unemployment to most of the people in the Accounts department especially University Bursars.

However, he is in support of the strategy and believes it will help with the issue of misuse of funds in Uganda public Universities.

“We realised that there was abuse of funds in our institutions of learning because some of the tuition is being collected but not used. Some tuition is stolen while some money just disappears. So, let URA collect this money, let this money come as government revenue and let it be budgeted for and appropriated,” Mr Mugunga told Daily Monitor by telephone last month.