The administration at the University of Ibadan has refused to comment on OS Professional Service financial audit report that revealed a series of acts of financial mismanagement at the institution.
Our correspondent made several attempts to obtain a response from officials of the university, but his efforts were rebuffed in a hostile manner.
The audit report, which was made public by Saharareporters, exposed how the varsity disregarded fiscal policies in a number of its financial engagements between 2010-2015, the period covered by the audit.
On Friday, July 21, 2017, our correspondent visited the office of the University Bursar, Mr. Micheal Akinade Alatise, on a fact-finding assignment, but he was denied an interview with the bursar. Instead, Mr. Alatise and some other UI officers demanded to know how Saharareporters got the audit report. When our correspondent insisted that he could not divulge his source of such information, the Bursar refused to entertain any further interaction.
“If you cannot tell us where you got the report, then I cannot speak to you on the report,” Mr. Alatise said and walked away.
However, in separate interviews with other senior members of the University, our correspondent learned that one Professor E. Ayoola, a lecturer in the university's Mathematics department, has been appointed to lead an investigative committee that would investigate the report.
According to the OS professional service audit report, Mr. Ayoola, along the Vice Chancellor, Abel Olayinka, and twelve others were interviewed by OS Professional Service auditors.
The report, among many other findings, indicted Professor I. Adewole, the former Vice Chancellor whose tenure fell within the years of the audit. The report also named several other UI officials who failed to provide evidence on how touring advances they received was spent.
Mr. Adewole, who is now the country’s Minister of Health, and three others allegedly received $16, 400 as touring advance which was not properly accounted for.
“Contrary to the accounting manual provisions on Touring Advances which requires accountability for foreign travel funds to be made three months after the trip, we noted that several touring expenses incurred during the period under review lacked the appropriate accountability in form of copies of air tickets boarding passes etc,” the report said.
The audit also concludes that the institution had violated the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy. In addition, the institution to have was yet to link its Unibadan Microfinance Bank Limited to the institution’s Bank Verification Number (BVN).
A member of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said members of staff had been denied access to the monthly cooperative levy deducted from their salary.
He alleged that over N60 million had so far been deducted from salaries as cooperative levy but staff whose salaries were taxed have been denied the benefits of the deduction.
“They have been deducting money for cooperative but when we ask for the cooperative loan, the cooperative would tell us there's no money. We wonder where what they have been deducting from us went," he said.
