Africa-Press – Uganda. Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe has directed all university staff to declare all research grants received in the name of the university to the Grants Administration and Management Support Unit (GAMSU) within one month.
According to the April 22 letter from Prof Nawangwe, a copy of which Daily Monitor has seen, the University Council approved the Grants Administration and Management Policy that seeks to streamline the administration and management of all grants in the university.
In the letter, Prof Nawangwe stated: “It is the requirement under the policy to declare all grants received in the name of the university to the grants unit, submit regular reports on grant activities and submit final grants through GAMSU,” Prof Nawangwe said.
“Please note that failure to declare any grant to GAMSU is an offence. Any principal investigators and grants managers are hereby directed to provide information on their grants to GAMSU within one month from the date of this circular,” he added.
The university has appointed the former acting deputy Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration, Prof William Bazeyo, to head the grants unit.In an interview with Daily Monitor yesterday, Prof Nawangwe said there has been no mechanism to document all the research grants that come into the university.
He said the university staff should embrace this because the unit will not only document the research grants but also help staff who want to write good grant applications.
“We need to document all grants for proper accountability. It will be easy for anybody who wants information regarding how much the university invests in research annually because the central management will be capturing everything,” Prof Nawangwe said.He said the grants unit will also be following up on whether research reports and key finding have been submitted.
Staff react
The vice chairperson of Makerere University academic staff association, Prof Edward Mwavu, said staff have been declaring all grants they get to their respective colleges and the bursar so they do not know why the university has created another unit.
He said Makerere University operationalised college systems hence these should be left to control the grants for their own growth.
“It has never been a problem for us to declare the grants because the bursar was aware about all the grants that come into the university. We are also operating under the college system so why can’t the university leave colleges to control these grants? There is nothing new in this,” Prof Mwavu said.
