Business Skills Trust Institute has sued National Council for Higher Education’s (NCHE) decision not to recognise its license.
In the suit filed in the High court on December 1, the institute is demanding Shs 1.3bn in damages and has named NCHE officials; Pamela Tibihikirra Kalyegira, the director Quality Assurance and Accreditation, and Prof John Opuda-Asibo, the executive director, as co-respondents.
According to court documents, Business Skills Trust Institute was established in 1993 as a training and consultancy organization, and incorporated in 1998. Later in 2000, it was licensed to offer diploma and certificates by the ministry of Education and Sports.
Upon being licensed, the institute says, it opened branches and signed various agreements with bodies, which were willing to associate and work with it.
After NCHE took over the responsibility of licensing and registering higher institutions of learning, Business Skills Trust says it submitted its prospectus and other legal documents to NCHE.
“National Council for Higher Education started clarifying, equating, verifying and recognizing the plaintiff and its awards and status for both work and further studies,” the institute says.
“The plaintiff [Business Skills Trust Institute] was at the request of the first defendant [NCHE] wrongfully required to fill an- other pre-requisite in 2011 and was asked to pay [Shs] 2,100,000 for the exercise of accreditation, which was done.”
TURNAROUND
The matter came to a head on January 2012 when NCHE published a list of institutions it recognizes, but omitted Business Skills Trust Institute. Enraged, the students threatened legal action.
“That plaintiff again provided the first defendant [NCHE] with its legal status and it was told the list was not conclusive,” the plaint reads in part.
Subsequently, the institute claims, NCHE officials refused to verify its academic awards.
According to the institute, after Opuda-Asibo and Kalyegira came into office, they sought to undo the cordial relationship that existed between the two parties before.
Opuda-Asibo and Kalyegira are accused of wrongfully claiming that the institute wasn’t recognized, and thus demanding that it should seek provisional licensing and register afresh.
“The above actions of the second [Kalyegira] and third [Opuda-Asibo] defendants were hostile and based on lies and malice, which have caused the students to abandon their studies and the public to distrust the plaintiff,” the institute states.
Business Skills Trust adds that NCHE’s December 7, 2015 communication, which again omitted the plaintiff from the list of recognized institutions, meant that it was operating illegally.
“The plaintiff has in consequence of the said publication been seriously and severely injured in its reputation as a training and consultancy institution and its graduates’ character as workers and those seeking political positions of employment have been scorned and others have failed to be admitted for further studies on grounds of lack of adequate recognized qualifications by NCHE,” the plaint further states.
Among other prayers, the institute wants court to issue an injunction restraining the respondents from writing and publishing material that adversely affect it.
dkiyonga@observer.ug