Petitioning Parliament is indiscipline- Prof Nawangwe

Makerere University management has castigated sacked staff who petitioned Parliament accusing the University of failure to follow legal procedures.
Addressing journalists on Thursday, the university vice chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe said the staff should follow the right procedures if they are not satisfied with the decisions of management.
He said the affected staff should have petitioned the university tribunal which was established by the University council and not the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kagada.

"The staff who petitioned Parliament should have first read the university regulations that govern them. It was not right for them to run to Parliament because they were supposed to first petition their staff tribunal which was established by the University Council instead of running to the Speaker of Parliament who is ever busy. Running to the Speaker instead of the university tribunal is part of the indiscipline I am talking about so this must end," Prof Nawangwe said.
Prof Nawangwe, however, said they are ready to defend themselves if the Speaker invites them.

Makerere University on December 22, 2018 sacked 45 staff over various reasons ranging from absconding from work, indiscipline, assault and financial fraud to insubordination, among others.
This comes a day after Parliament through the office of the Speaker on Wednesday received the petition from a section of staff who were sacked.
According to the 78 page petition dated January 2, 2019 and addressed to Ms Kadaga, the staff under their umbrella body of the "Concerned members of Makerere university staff" said Parliament should investigate the alleged abuse of structures and Makerere university's human resource policies by management and council.

The petitioners say their dismissal is dubious and unprecedented in the university’s history since its establishment in 1922.
“In the history of Makerere University, the Appointments Board had never dismissed staff the way Mr Bruce Kabaasa’s Appointments Board did. On December 22, 2018, staff woke up to shocking news that 47 members of staff were dubiously dismissed, terminated or suspended.

These include two Makerere Administrative Staff Association leaders suspended for acting on behalf of their members who have been suspended; and 45 academic staff whom government had spent a lot of money on in training to the level of Masters and PhD. The affected staff were subjected to a sham disciplinary procedure that culminated in their suspensions, termination or dismissal,” the sacked staff’s petition reads in part.