The Public Account Committee, PAC, of the House of Representatives at the weekend raised an alarm over financial transactions in the nation’s Federal Government-owned tertiary institutions and directed the Vice Chancellor to the University of Uyo to refund N28 million paid as bank COT.
The committee discovered that the University paid out a sum of N28.1m to various commercial banks as Cost of Transfer (COT) within a year contrary to Federal Government financial regulation which forbids commercials banks from charging Government Agencies on any transaction.
The Chairman of the Committee, Honourable Solomon Adeola Olamilekan queried the Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Professor Comfort Ekpo who appeared before the committee over the various financial queries raised against the Institution by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation in the 2009 financial year.
The committee, while describing the transaction as illegal and criminal act, gave the Vice Chancellor a 31-day ultimatum within which to recover the amount from the affected banks and paid same to the Federal Government Consolidated Revenue Account and the evidence of payment within the period should be brought before the Committee.
In a related development it was also discovered that the University paid out another N51million before raising vouchers for such payment which the Committee described as illegal transaction and ordered the Vice Chancellor to produce the Institution’s Bursar and Internal Auditor as well as the original vouchers for the transaction before the Committee by tomorrow (Tuesday).
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Source: Compass
