Auditor General Pursues Run-Away Beneficiaries Of Further Studies At Universities

The Auditor-General (A-G) has directed public tertiary institutions to refund monies spent to give further education to their staff who abandoned their jobs after acquiring the scholarships from public funds.

The A-GA wants some GHC 3 million to be refunded because the public did not benefit from the further education that these beneficiaries got from the State.

The schools involved include the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Various Vice-Chancellors of these schools are directed to ensure that the beneficiaries make refunds or else be surcharged themselves for the monies involved.

According to the AG’s audited reports of the University of Cape Coast, covering 2018 and 2019, conditions of service for senior members of public universities provides for study leave with pay which may be granted at the discretion of the vice-chancellor after an applicant has served three years.

However, the conditions include a requirement for the successful applicant who gets the study leave with pay to return to serve the university for a period of two times the number of years or pay in lieu of service.

This total expenditure includes salaries, and allowances plus interest at the bank rate during the period of study leave.

However, in the period of the review, the UCC granted study leave with pay amounting to ¢1.9 million for eight staff members, but the officers did not return to serve the University.

Blaming the Vice-Chancellor for the development, the report directs him to pursue the beneficiaries for a refund or refund the amount himself.

For the KNUST, the school is said to have spent almost ¢1 million on further training of some senior staff who either failed to return to the country or abandoned post on their return.

In the case of GIMPA, a staff member called Dominic Npoanlari Dagbanja, was sponsored with a Gh¢327,800.24 facility to study Law in Australia. He completed his course in 2016 but has since not returned to serve GIMPA.

“The GH¢327,800.24 spent on Mr. Dominic Npoanlari Dagbanja should be recovered from him or his guarantors in the event that the Institute cannot recover it from him; also members of staff who have completed their courses of study must report to the Institute to serve their bond period or pay the amount expended on,” the A-G directed.