Makerere Council clears students to graduate

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Makerere University Council has cleared two students to graduate after they had been dismissed on allegations of fraud.

The students are Simon Peter Musisi Ntege, a former student of Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and Phillip Kakuru, a former student of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT).

The two were among the 400 students who had been implicated in falsifying their results in the university’s online results management system, by the Adhoc Examinations Irregularities and malpractice committee.

They were dismissed from the University in 2018 August and December respectively after completing their studies.

Ntege and Kakuru appealed against the decision of the Senate to the University Council, the supreme governing body of the university.

The University Council working through its Legal, Rules and Privileges Committee have now overturned the decisions of the Senate on grounds that their original genuine results qualified them to graduate.

The seven-member committee led by Dr Winston Tumps Ireeta ordered that the students be allowed to graduate this month.

The committee recommended that; “The altered marks appearing in the Online Results Management System were cancelled and the original results maintained;”

The council committee also ordered for a forensic audit of the University’s Online Results Management System as well as referral of all students and staff implicated in falsification and alteration of marks to Uganda Police to be part of the on-going criminal investigation and prosecution.

Although the council committee noted that the students’ results have been altered to higher marks, they exonerated the students as the marks were changed through the back-end which could not be accessed by the students.

“The committee noted with great displeasure and disapproval of the conduct and negligence of some members of staff in the Academic Registrar’s Office who aided in the Appellants’ to alter their marks and enable them securing a better CGPA and therefore a better class of degree. This was unethical and unprofessional of the members of staff,” reads the decision and determination of the council committee.

Three members of staff Christopher Ntwatwa, Denis Mbabazi and Mike Barongo who had the password and access to the back-end have been referred to the institution’s Appointments Board for disciplinary action.

The trio are said to have been the only university staff with access rights to the Results Management System since 2004 to October 2014 as system administrators. They were subsequently arrested and have been under investigation since then.

In March 2017, university authorities were forced to close the RMS used to record students’ examinations marks, and subsequently suspended the issuance of academic transcripts.

Later in September 2017, the university cancelled at least 69 degrees after the university audit found that the students’ transcripts were either forged or reflected altered results.

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