It was Thursday 21st September at 8.20 am, at the of Office of Dean, School of Public Health that Prof. William Bazeyo handed the Deanship baton to Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze.
He expressed his appreciation and thanked all the staff he had been working with in his 8 years of deanship and he mentioned that he was sure it had been a good run and that it was his prayer that the run would continue. He pledged his continued support & availability to the School.
In his 34 page report, he detailed information on the following; School Vision, core responsibilities, School leadership, School committees, Transport, staffing, Academic, and Finance, School SACCO, Challenges & recommendations and many other aspects.
He noted that the strength of the FMU was largely because they were well trained and the school had invested heavily in building capacity for the FMU. He thanked the team he has been working given the financial status of the school was poor at the beginning (when he became Dean) and it improved standing at more than 3.3 Billion cash (1.3 billion and 2.08 billion for development fund together making it 3.3 billion) excluding project funds.
He moved to thank the College Human Resource Manager who attended the function as well for supporting the School as well as the College at large in getting members staff appointments & promotions in the University system.
He mentioned that during his tenure, four new programs had been approved and introduced, student numbers had steadily increased, a total of 806 students had graduated and most remarkably 24 staff members had been awarded PhDs in the same period.
He thanked and praised the 12 member staff at School Finance Management Unit for good work done. He expressed his appreciation to the FMU Manager Elizabeth Nambi for her leadership skills and highlighted that the work of the unit made the school to shine with hardly any queries from any funder or research team. He encouraged the team to organize themselves to get ready to offer their technical expertise to other Units in the University when they are called upon- he noted he may be the one to request FMU staff to train other Units in other Colleges. He noted that the FMU had grown to become a “one stop” Center/Unit for both students and faculty. He said there was enough evidence for the track record for the FMU among many handing lots of money approximately $26 million per year.
The Acting College Principal Dr. Rose Nabirye Chalo in her remarks, thanked Professor Bazeyo for a very detailed handover, and said she had never seen such handover from any Dean and commended the good practice. She went ahead to congratulate him to his new office. She also took the opportunity to welcome the new Dean and mentioned that like Professor Bazeyo had been supportive to the entire College in many ways that she (the Dean elect) was expected to uphold the School tradition of looking to offering a hand whenever it was needed at the CHS. She thanked Prof Bazeyo having a “big heart” that never discriminated anyone and his ever eagerness to support the College and his spirit of teamwork. She requested him to keep the CHS close to his heart that after all that was his home.
In her remarks, the incoming Dean Professor Rhoda Wanyenze thanked the outgoing Dean for the overwhelmingly detailed handover report and the humility with which he did it and presented it to the team that included the University Acting Chief Internal Auditor, Mr. Benson Barigye, acting Principal CHS, HR Manager CHS, the Deputy Dean Professor Christopher Orach, Chairs of Departments that included Prof Nazarious Mbona and Suzzane Kiwanuka who represented Chair of HPPM.
She noted the Professor Bazeyo had mentored many people including herself at SPH and appreciated him for being vigilant in identifying and attracting the best persons to join the School both in projects and University service a thing that she believed was a result for the love he had and wish to see the school grow and shine. This capability was noted as one of his strength in his leadership. She also mentioned that because of his good leadership, the School was a big force not only in the University, but nationally and internationally and she pledged to maintain this glory. She pledged to work together with the rest of the team to cultivate the next generation of leaders. She once again thanked the outgoing Dean Professor William Bazeyo for the good culture of handover and documentation and she pledged to continue seeking for advice and his wisdom on several issues. She concluded by mentioning that she was ready to work with her colleagues at the School.
The Director of Internal Audit took the opportunity to thank Professor Bazeyo for the elaborate and detailed handover. He reminded members that handover was a key responsibility of any civil servant but to his surprise, there seemed to be no standard handover format or template. He continued that he was happy that Professor Bazeyo was appointed acting Deputy vice chancellor F&A and that he was hopeful that he would handle the office successfully.
He highly commended the handover report from Professor Bazeyo as the best handover report he had seen in his entire time at Makerere University having attended several handover occasions before and that he would easily pass it as the best among very many. “This is a very detailed handover report, I have read and I can see every small and big thing at SPH highlighted, Prof Bazeyo thank you for showing the example” he said. The Chief Auditor went on to congratulate Professor Rhoda Wanyenze for the appointment and that as per her pledge we have to make the School greater than it is now. He commended the School for the spirit of team work and that this should be cultivated through the University. He thanked the Acting Principal for the good culture that the CHS displays all the time.
