By Saaka Mohammed
The Bolgatanga Technical University has been surcharged to pay 4,000 Ghana cedis for disposing of a water packaging machine it purchased in 2014. The machine, which was purchased at a cost of 10,000 Ghana Cedis for commercial production of water, was kept unused by the university until the university governing Council authorized the sale of the machine which was later sold at 6,000 Ghana Cedis in 2020.
This came to light at the Public Accounts Committee sitting in Tamale. The institutions that appeared before the committee are the Tamale, Dr. Hilla Liman and Bolgatanga Technical Universities. The sitting is for the period 2020 and is expected to last for four days.
The chairman of the PAC, James Klutse Agbedzi who instructed the Ghana Audit Service to surcharge the university, said it is wrong for the university to purchase the water package machine and kept it unused for that number of years and later sold it as low as 6,000 Ghana cedis.
According to him, the university did not plan before purchasing the machine and therefore its action has caused some financial loss to the state.
Other infractions identified by the Auditor General with the university included the printing of unapproved receipt books, underpayment of accommodation rent by University staff, as well as the failure of some students on study leave to serve their bonds after completion. In the case of one Dr. Allan who was granted study leave to pursue a PhD programme overseas in 2015 failed to report back to post after completion.
In response, the Vice Chancellor of the Bolgatanga Technical University, Professor Samuel Erasmus Alnaa said Dr. Alan who failed to return to post after completion, is being investigated by EOCO and that about 103,000 Ghana cedis out of 236,000 Ghana has so far been refunded to the state.
On the issue of staff paying less than 10 percent approved rate for government accommodations, the vice Chancellor called for the review of the policy because, for him, it is discriminatory, saying that senior officers pay more than junior officers for the same facility used.
The three universities could not generate enough revenue as of the year under review and this was attributed to the emergence of COVID-19, where schools were shut down during the period.
