The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) may recommend the prosecution of some officials of the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, and NDK Financial Services over a GH¢1.2 million investment fund.
The Office of Research Innovation and Development (ORID), UG, Legon, which made the investment, has had its GH¢1,234,767.59 locked up with NDK Financial Services, with no hope of recouping, since 2019.
The UG, Legon, has redeemed a paltry GH¢100,000.00 from the total funds of GH¢1,334,767.59, as of March 17, 2020, leaving GH¢1,234,767.59, though the due date was October 15, 2019.
According to the Auditor-General, the anomaly was occasioned by “the non-adherence” to the University’s investment policy directives, issued on October 4, 2018, by the Vice Chancellor, which “restricted all investment activities” to only commercial banks that had met the minimum capital threshold of the Bank of Ghana.
In paragraphs 1286 to 1294 of the 2021 Report of the Auditor-General on public boards, corporations, and other statutory institutions, management told the auditors that it “will not relent in its efforts to retrieve amounts invested.”
PROSECUTION
Interrogated at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, the PAC did not take the issue lightly and may recommend prosecution through the Attorney General to recoup the investment.
The Committee members expressed their displeasure with the officials of the UG, Legon, when they appeared before it to respond to issues relating to the institution, raised by the A-G in the 2021 Auditor General Report.
Recalling that the auditors flagged the University of Education, Winneba, for the same investment gone bad issue, the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Defeamakpor, indicated the need to crack the whip.
“The University officers should be prosecuted like we are prosecuting persons whose offenses border on procurement breaches. These are very serious matters. Chairman, I think we should start with this report,” he recommended.
The MP could not fathom why the university was facing accommodation challenges for staff and students, but chose to invest in financial institutions that could not pay back.
He was convinced that the then Pro-Vice Chancellor would take personal steps to recoup the money “if he is prosecuted.”
LESSONS LEARNT
The Director of Finance, Bernice B. Agudu, told the Committee that the university had learned its lessons owing to the investment policy instructions referred to, “and we are adhering to that.”
According to the Finance Director, NDK Financial Services had “liquidity challenges” and promised to pay, but that had not materialized.
However, she said management had followed internal processes and handed the issue over to its legal council, which is following up.
The Pro-Vice Chancellor, in charge of Research and Innovation Development, Prof. Felix Ankomah Asante, told the Committee that the investment was done in 2017, but the directive to work only with commercial banks was in 2018. He blamed the lockup on the liquidity crisis during the banking and financial sector clean-up exercise undertaken by the government in its first term.
He told the Committee that the funds were generated in the office, from overheads and other sources, and were invested, not direct research funds.
