More than 440 Egerton university staff are set to be fired by the institution as it tries to deal with its cash crunch brought by the pandemic.
Through a report published by the university, the institution has planned to fire the staff to ease the payroll challenge. The university council has already sanctioned the move.
This will decrease the payroll budget by Sh38.7 million per month,” notes the report.
Every year the university spends a total of Sh 464.4 million for paying its staff.
Last month the university’s vice chancellor Prof Rose Mwoya noted that institution had asked the government to look into offering Sh589.7 million to fund the process.
She noted the institution has applied stringent austerity measures to reduce costs.
The university will begin paying full salaries once the capitation by government is improved. “From January 2021, we expect that we will be able to start paying outstanding salaries accruing since April 2020, starting with those who are retiring or leaving services for whatever reason,” she noted.
As per the institution, government financing has been reducing since 2015.
Already Constatine Wasonga, the Universities Academic Staff union Secretary General has written to the university asking for the payment of academic staff salaries as per the 2017-2021 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
The secretary general argues that, despite the report explicitly defines the financial problems the institution faces, it neither offers a reliable plan to steer the university out of its present cash crunch nor a suitable plan to pay the balance of unpaid staff.
The report indicates that the institution only relies on revenue from students who are not in session as a result of the pandemic.
The report reveals that continuing students pay only Sh 16,000 yearly as fees for tuition.
“The report does not explain why the fee collection is declining and there is no data or evidence give to support this,’’ he noted.
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