MAKERERE – A dean and deputy principal have been demoted at Makerere University for failing to detect the altering of marks and smuggling of unqualified students onto a graduation list in the latest scandal to hit the oldest public university in the country.
Dr Rose Chalo Nabirye, the dean of the School of Health Sciences, and Dr Isaac Okullo, the deputy principal of the College of Health Sciences, have been demoted for failing to detect the fraud orchestrated by two college staff, Ms Fatuma Nakatudde, and Mr Paul Apunyo, who have since been fired.
Ms Nakatudde has been the deputy registrar of the College of Health Sciences, while Mr Apunyo has been the college’s senior administrative assistant.
According to letters to the two staff from the Directorate of Human Resources, they entered the names of two students into the Makerere University examination results system and included their names on the February 2017 graduation list, which acts are prejudicial to the proper performance of duties or the university image.
“The particulars of these complaints are that you, Paul Apunyo, while employed as a senior administrative assistant in the College of Health Science, Makerere University, unlawfully, without authority entered the names of Rogers Mushabe and Alex Madile into the examination result system, which is likely to cause financial loss to the university,” the letter to Mr Apunyo reads in part.
The Directorate of Human Resources took action on recommendation from the University Appointments Board, which sat on October 5. In their meeting, the Appointments Board ruled that the actions of the two staff tantamount to what they called “gross misconduct”.
The decision implies that the two students will have their degrees recalled and cancelled.
Prior to the 2017 graduation ceremony, Makerere University management withdrew the names of 59 students from the final graduation booklet after it emerged that their names had been smuggled in the booklet. The university also withheld the transcripts of more than 14,000 students who graduated that year and ordered an investigation into forgery of marks.
The university took the decision to withhold academic transcripts on March 9 2017, after suspending four staff from the academic registrar’s department on suspicion that they participated in altering students’ marks without permission from their bosses.
