How will money spent on furthering UR staff study abroad be recovered?

By The Inspirer

Members of Parliament on Tuesday, June 15, grilled the Minister of Education over the University of Rwanda’s failure to pursue and recover money from the former members of its staff who were given loan to further their education but they did not return to work for it.

For instance, MPs said that from 2011 to 2017, UR paid over Rwf453 million to 27 members of its staff. But, during the audit period – in March 2020, only one of them had got back to work, while 26 had not returned and they have to pay over Rwf441 million.

Now, the University is grappling to recover such money. Legislators said that another issue is that the University has not needed information for the members of its personnel who received the education loan which can help it to pursue them.

But, that might be just a small part of larger problem.  Indeed, the Minister of Education, Valentine Uwamariya told lawmakers that as part of the solution to the problem, the University set up a team mandated to indicate the state of the issue and recommend what can be done to address it as well as prevent a similar case in the future.

The Minister was summoned by the virtual Plenary Sitting of the Chamber of Deputies held on Tuesday, June 15, to give verbal explanations to the mismanagement of resources in UR.

Even today, July 27, 2021, the Minister appeared before the virtual Plenary Sitting of the Chamber of Deputies to provide written response to the issue — because MPs were not satisfied with her verbal explanations in the previous session.

So far, she said, the team has drawn a list of all the University staff members who were given education loan since 1998, but did not return to work.

Uwamariya told lawmakers that staff belonged to different institutions of higher learning that were merged into UR, who went to further their education from 1998.

Giving the current picture of the problem, she said that the list that has been made comprises 212 members of university staff who went for study but they never returned to work for it. These include 130 workers whose contracts were gotten, while salaries for 170 workers were counted.

They had agreements with their respective higher learning institutions consisting in that they had to come and work for them in the specified period after completing their studies- because thy continued to receive their salaries during the study period, she explained.

She indicated that there are those who went to study before the agreements was prepared, and as a result, it is not available now.

There is also some of them whose whereabouts are not known thus far, she said, indicating that there are also those whose emails and phone numbers changed such that it is difficult to find them. But, she said that the work to find their whereabouts and address in general continues.

Meanwhile, she said, the established team at UR has collected essential information that can be helpful in pursuing and recovering money from those in question, including the agreements, their location [for some].

Also, she said, the team calculated the amount of money that each member of staff has to pay based on the agreement they had with the University, and the salaries they were paid during the course of the study.

However, the Minister warned that the workers who breached the agreement with the University will be punished in compliance with the general statute governing public servants.

Some will be spared from pursuit

Uwamariya told parliamentarians that there are workers who were exempted from pursuit by the decision adopted by the UR Board of Governors.

They include three who died, seven who were appointed by the Cabinet to different official positions, and 10 who were given education loan when the law provided that a public servant who has completed further study works for a public institution –.but does not specify its former employing entity, and now they are working for the Government.

There is also one who has already repaid the money he owed to the University, and two who have committed to repaying the money they got from the University.

MP Jeanne d’Arc Uwimanimpaye said that one of the University’s academic staff members received Rwf27 million to scale up his/her education and continued to get salary.

“Where is that lecturer, is he/she serving the country,” she wondered.

Mussa Fazil Harerimana, Deputy Speaker in charge finance and administration said the fact that a person has died does not mean that the arrears he/she owed should not be paid, if they have left assets [they owned], indicating that write-off loan should be a careful decision.