The Auditor General of the Federation has faulted the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, (MOUAU), Abia State, for spending N64 million on Christmas and Sallah Gifts in 2021.
While the Auditor-General didn’t specify the names or number of staff who benefitted from the ‘gifts’, it noted that the university disbursed the funds in nine payments between February and December 2021. The payments totalled N64,020,310.00.
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This is one of 32 financial violations committed by the MOUAU between 2021 and 2021, according to the Auditor General’s annual report recently submitted to the National Assembly.
Other violations include the university’s failure to remit over N578 million in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and a N40 million over-payment of severance payments to the former vice-chancellor.
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According to the Auditor General, the university made N5.4 billion questionable payments, including award of contracts above threshold, unapproved payments, circumvention of procurement procedures and payments without project execution.
Violations
The report explained that the payments of N64 million unapproved for Christmas and Sallah gifts to staff, violated paragraph 415 and 713 of the Financial Regulations Act of 2009.
“The federal government requires all officers responsible for expenditure to exercise due economy. Money must not be spent merely because it has been voted,” it quoted paragraph 415.
Also, paragraph 713 of the FR states: “Personal money will in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account nor shall any public money be paid into a private bank account. An officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention.”
The report attributed the anomalies to the weakness in the internal control system of the university.
It added that the university management did not respond to its request for justification of the spending.
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“Since the Management failed to respond to the issue raised, the findings remain valid until the Management implements the recommendations,” the report said.
Recommendation
The Auditor-General recommended the prosecution of the university’s vice-chancellor should he fail to remit the sum to the federal government coffers.
The report asked the public accounts committee to the National Assembly to ask the vice-chancellor to remit the sum to the federal government coffers or prosecute him, according to the financial regulation laws.
“Otherwise, sanctions relating to poor management of cash and irregular or wrong payment in paragraphs 3115 and 3106 of the Financial Regulations (2009) respectively, should apply,” the report noted.
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