The Senate Public Accounts Committee has asked the University of Abuja to refund N603m of its internally-generated revenue to the federation account.

The Auditor-General for the Federation had, in a 2017 report, said the university generated N2.4bn in 2016 and 2017, but failed to remit 25% of its IGR, amounting to N603m, to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The Vice Chancellor of UniAbuja, Prof. AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, while responding to the query before the committee, said the revenue generated was not enough to run the institution, forcing it to spend N603m.

Na’Allah said: “Cost recovery concept is adopted by the university; that is, charges collected were used to pay for services rendered.

“For instance, ID card charges were used to process ID cards for students. These revenues are not enough for the purpose collected and therefore the capacity for the university to remit surplus is lacking.”

But the vice chairman of the committee, Senator Hassan Hadejia, dismissed the VC’s submission and asked the university to refund N603m to the CRF.

The audit query reads: “The Federal Circular Reference No. BO/REV/12235/259/VII/201 dated 11th November, 2011 issued by the Honorable Minister of Finance restricting expenditure on IGR to 75% while 25% is to be remitted to the CRF.

“During the review of financial records and documents, it was observed that the University generated the sum of 2,413,787,645.48 internally in 2016 and 2017.

“The yearly revenue generated internally was 1,463,097,604.13 in 2016 and 950,690,041.35 in 2017.

“Meanwhile, the University failed to remit 25% of its IGR amounting to 603,446,911.37 to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

“Non-remittance of the IGR shows lack of control in the expenditure of public fund. Furthermore, funds for developmental purposes is tied down.

“The Vice Chancellor is required to remit the sum of 603,446,911.37 being 25% of IGR to the CRF immediately and forward evidence of remittance to my Office for confirmation.”

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.