UoN accuses Treasury of slashing its budget by Sh1.7bn

juma chrispinus

February 28, 2017 8:24 AM

Earlier, Auditor General's report implicated the institution in depending on bank overdrafts of over Sh2 billion.

The University of Nairobi Council has accused the National Treasury of slashing the institution’s budget proposals for the financial year 2017/18 from Sh6.2 billion to Sh4.5 billion at a time the institution is grappling with financial crisis.

The Vice Chancellor of UoN Prof Peter Mbithi told journalists that the institution’s Council and University Management Board (UMB) had approved and presented to the ministry a budget proposal amounting to Sh6.2 billion.

He lamented that the ministry opted to slice the budget by Sh1.7 billion and forward it to the National Assembly.

Speaking to journalists at the institution, Mbithi, who is also the secretary to the council, said he had petitioned Parliament through the National Assembly budget committee to intervene and arrest the matter.

“The proposed budget cut is premised on the new formula of costing degree programmes called the Differentiated Unit Costs (DUC) but the implementation should have been gradual. The university has experienced a steady decline in budgetary support,” he told journalists.

He said the institution has faced financial constraints because of declining budgetary support and delays in exchequer releases.

Broke

Earlier, the auditor general Edward Ouko implicated University of Nairobi in his report that it was running on a deficit of Sh2 billion, claims Mbithi has blatantly denied.

According to Auditor’s report on UoN financial, procurement and human resource management, the university is surviving on commercial bank overdrafts due to financial constraints.

Mbithi has also trashed reports by a section of the media that the institution had been censured for issuing Masters and PhD degrees to students whose theses had been done by agents.

The VC who was flanked by the council’s acting Chairperson Pascalliah Kosgei and other top officials called on the Commission for University Education (CUE) to issue a public explanation for the university over the matter.

juma chrispinus