The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Benedict Mutua, on Friday 20th December 2024, held a six-hour consultative meeting with the members of staff in the Main Hall.
This was the first time the VC was meeting the general staff since he assumed office in September 2023. The event brought together all cadres of staff who were given an opportunity to air their grievances and suggested the possible solutions. “It was not my intention not to meet you soon after I assumed office. There was a lot that was going on. I wanted to first understand and attempt to resolve issues and fully understand the institution before holding any meaningful meeting with you,” explained Prof Mutua.
The VC recalled that it did not take two weeks after reporting before the unions called out their members to picket over delayed salaries for August 2023.
In his opening remarks, the VC informed the staff that he wanted to meet and brief them on pertinent matters affecting their welfare, discuss the strategies to address the sticky issues and the way forward.
The VC acknowledged that the institution had deep financial problems that needed to be resolved by concerted efforts of all members of the University community.
Prof Mutua appreciated the fact the Head of State had appointed a substantive Chancellor, Dr Jared Kangwana. He explained that the Chancellor had assured the University that he will use his office to lobby for resources for TU-K to address its financial challenges.
He disclosed that as at 2024, the institution had a debt of Sh.11.7 billion comprising un-remitted statutory deductions such as pension and pay-as-you earn and third-party deductions due to commercial banks and Saccos.
The VC noted that since 2013, TU-K staff have not been paid their gross salaries which partly explains the inability of the University to remit the statutory deductions and meet other financial obligations.
Forensic Audit
Prof Mutua said the runaway wage bill due to past unplanned recruitment had also worsened the financial situation of the University but exuded confidence that the financial challenges facing the institution are being addressed by the Ministry of Education and other relevant Government agencies.
He also disclosed that “since we cannot audit ourselves,” an external forensic audit will be conducted to give a proper picture of the financial state of the University. Currently the University receives Sh63.3 million per month yet its wage bill is Sh. 256,957 million per month. This forces the University to look for extra monies to top up to pay net salaries. This has made the pending bills keep rising due to non-remittance of deductions on payslips.
Job Matching, Placement and Staff Promotions
The VC appealed to the staff unions to support the recommendations of a committee on Job-Matching and Placement whose report will soon be presented to the University Council for consideration.
He explained that once the recommendations are approved by the University Council, members of staff will be placed in their correct grades based on qualifications, experience and other job specifications and in the process remove overlaps and duplications that are currently being witnessed.
He assured the staff that promotions will resume once the University completes the financial clean up exercise that is currently underway.
Payroll Management
In order to efficiently manage the wage bill, the VC said the payroll has since been removed from Finance to Human Resource Management adding that proper use of ICT will weed out cases of irregular payment of salaries to members of staff on study leave or already deceased, retired or already separated from the University service.
New Organisational Structure
The VC said the University will implement the new organisational structure that was approved in the recently-launched 2023-2027 Strategic Plan.
Prof Mutua said the current structure is top heavy and financially unsustainable hence the need to change it.
The VC disclosed that the Schools will be replaced by Departments to be headed by Chairmen who will be reporting to Deans of Faculty. He also said the title “Academic Team Leader” will be scrapped adding that the Chairmen of Department that will be appointed will be young academics while seasoned academics such as Professors will be providing guidance to them.
“It’s a good idea to appoint young and vibrant academics to manage departments to directly deal with students matters such as examinations. This will give them a chance to hone their administration skills.”
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA)
The VC said an internal CBA implementation committee chaired by the DVC- Research and Technology Development, Prof Alfred Orina, had worked out the amounts for each member of staff adding that all the Sh.93 million to be received by TU-K will be accounted for to the last cent.
The staff union representatives confirmed that they had worked well with the Management and signed off the document detailing how the CBA money will be shared among the staff.
He allayed concerns of the members of staff in regard to the 2017-2021 CBA arrears. “The Committee’s terms of reference will be revised to address and advise on the pending National and Internal CBAs since 2013.”
Pension Contributions
The VC informed the members of staff that the University is working on a programme to address the recently wound-up pension scheme.
“We are waiting for a report from the Court-appointed Receiver. Once the report is received, the University Council will advise on the way forward.”
The VC advised the staff to visit CPF and request for their individual pension statements.
Fee Waiver
Prof Mutua said the University no-longer gives fees waivers to members of staff pursuing advanced studies both internally and elsewhere.
“The draft policy on fee waiver that was being used has since been withdrawn and a new one will be worked on soon. He advised the concerned members of staff to pay up their fees to avoid possible disappointment.
Academic Performance
The VC said starting 2025, students will start receiving their examination results before they are allowed to move to the next level of their academic programmes.
“It’s not fair to allow students to move from one level to another before their examination results are processed and released. I will not entertain the culture of allowing students to reach the final year of study then they are informed that they have pending supplementary examinations in their first or second year of study,” said Prof Mutua.
The VC announced that starting 2025, scripts will be marked in the institution within two weeks after the end of examination period and marks uploaded swiftly adding that anyone who will not honour the timelines will have their names removed from the payroll.
“This will make the issue of missing marks a thing of the past. I call upon all of us to work diligently and deliver on this matter,” said the VC.
FTSE Scrapped
The Full Time Staff Equivalent (FTSE) formula the University has been using to determine the workload for the teaching staff and pay them for extra work, has been scrapped. The VC explained that the formula was being used as a conduit to misappropriate the University resources adding that, some members of faculty had been making inflated and unrealistic claims for payment even in cases they had not taken their full load.
“Some professors have been using FTSE to overwork Graduate Assistants (GAs) and Tutorial Fellows (TFS) while themselves are busy engaging in consultancy work. When the GAs and TFs are overworked, is it surprising that they stagnate in one job grade and by the time they realise, it’s too late?”
FTSE will be replaced by course- based units.
The VC assured the members of staff that future forums will be arranged to address matters of specific or common interest to the different staff cadres.
