Makerere, police stuck with marks fraudsters

Kampala. Police at Makerere University have failed to arrest any of the 88 suspects implicated in altering marks, almost three months after Academic Registrar Alfred Masikye Namoah sought their help.

Neither the law enforcers nor the university management could explain reasons for the inordinate delay to tackle a racket of staff, alumni and continuing students marks whose alleged actions tainted the reputation of the university that prompted it to withhold transcripts of 14, 000 students who graduated early this year.

In an interview on Monday, Mr Namoah said they were still waiting for police feedback.
“We wrote to police; we are waiting for their report,” Mr Namoah said.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, said they have so far dismissed one of their staff who was implicated in the initial investigations for illegally adding ineligible graduands to the graduation booklets.

He added that the management was still waiting for a report from the probe team on the other suspects.
“We informed police and we hope they are doing their work because they arrested some individuals [in a related case] and even took our computers. As management, we will wait for the investigating team to give us a report before we take any other action,” Prof Nawangwe said.

Arrest order
On September 7, Mr Namoah wrote to the then Makerere police chief, Mr Jackson Mucunguzi, to arrest individuals named as masterminds of the forgery.
Police leadership has sent Mr Mucunguzi on an advanced command course before he arrested any suspect.

His successor, Mr Enock Abaine, said he was still trying to understand the situation.
He, however, added that his office has only served summons to two university staff who failed to appear before a disciplinary committee.

Mr Abaine, without giving details on the individuals, explained that the duo had refused to be served.
Daily Monitor investigations reveal that the uncooperative suspects are suspended former procurement unit employees.

“The officers I sent to serve summons to two members of staff said the suspects were not willing to attend the disciplinary committee because they are already out of the system. Police is supposed to serve the summons. If the suspect doesn’t accept the summons, we have nothing to do. We have written to [Makerere University] human resource department,” Mr Abaine said on Monday.

A source close to police investigations, who declined to be named because they are not authourised to speak to press, said the issues of marks alteration at Makerere was “complex” because they involve top managers and the beneficiaries enjoy “big jobs in town”.
“These things are complex. The more you dig deep, (the more) you realise you can’t manage. Some staff have been threatened and who wants to lose life? You just let go,” the source said.
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