How Former Management Of Nasarawa polytechnic Collected Loans Indiscriminately Which Amounted To N65, 275,474.00 Million From Individuals, Banks

Rabiu Omaku

The shocking revelation by the Investigative panel of the Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia under the headship of Fati Sabo has uncovered that the institution has resorted to the collection of illegal loans from Individuals and Financial institutions.

The report indicated that almost all transactions were done on cash basis which was a contravention of sections 632,633 and 714 of the financial regulations.

The Committee further revealed that payment vouchers were not pre-audited by Internal Auditors.

Nasarawa State Polytechnic resorted to indiscriminate collection of loans from individual amounting to N56,976,500 Million with an interest of 5 percent which stand at N8, 298,975.00M.

In 2014 the institution collected loan of N6, 200,000.00M with an interest of N930,000.00 total N7, 130,000.00M and was meant for the payment of arrears of promotion.

While in 2015 collected N5,800,000.00 Million with an interest of N870,000.00M which gulped to N12,017,500.00M.

In 2016 the school collected loan of N10,450,000.00 Million with an interest of N1,567,500M.

While in 2017 the management collected N34,526,500M with an interest rate of N8,298,975.00M bringing the entire interest to N8,298,975.00 Million.

The Committee explained that the loans were not tied up to any projects and for this reason the former Rector, Dr.Silas Gyar and the Bursar,Abdullahi Akyo should be hold accountable for such suspicious loan.

The panel observed that there was no Departmental vote Books to determine the classification of codes and sub heads ,as it stated that the institution breached the approved spending threshold as evidenced by the indiscriminate approvals of amount from N1M to N15M.

NASPOLY GENERATES N2,022,739,266.00BN AS IGR FROM OCTOBER 2014 TO OCTOBER 2017

The total sum of N2, 022,739,266.00bn was realized as Internally Generated Revenue from the Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia, the report explained that the IGR comes from Tuition fees, Consultancy Services, Entrepreneurship, Students Industrial Work Experience Application Forms and sundry charges such as transcripts and Certificates respectively.

Tuition Fees from October 2014 to October 2017

In 2014 the Polytechnic generated N55,981,080.00M while N34,288,080.00M was expended but did not specify on what it was spent leaving the total amount of N21,692,999.19M.

In 2015,the school generates N502,481,355.00M with an expenditure of N310,016,896.14M with a difference of N192,464,458.86M.

And in 2016,the Committee reported that the total sum of N453,670,210.00M was generated as IGR while N381,100,975.00M was an expenditure with a balance of N72,237,566.00M.

While in 2017,the sum of N325,100,957.00M was expended with a balance of N56,229,983.00M,out of N2,023,739,266.00bn the institution expended N1,050,838,595.95M from October 2014 to October 2017 respectively leaving a balance of N342,625,007.05M.

The investigative panel discovered that only N10,377,283.16M was found in various Bank accounts instead of balance of N342,625,007.05M ,the panel recommended that the balance of N332,247,723.89M be refunded.

Government View

the state Government accepts and further directs the Governing Council to ensure immediate compliance, failure of which appropriate sanctions be meter on affected officers.

The Committee further recommend that Government should cause the state Accountant General and the state Auditor General to carry out further investigation on the matter.

The Committee observed that The former management goofed in all management and financial matters particularly in the Award of contracts

Staff employment and conversion

Utilization of funds

Commencement of programmes without NBTE approvals

Obtaining loans without due process

Absence or scanty documentation

No approvals for payment of huge sums

Indiscriminate approvals and release of funds

Operates secret Bank account.