The report of the Special Intervention Team on Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma has ruffled feathers in the university with the Academic Staff Union of Universities describing it as false, ADEYINKA ADEDIPE writes
The genesis
These are not the best of times for Ambrose Alli University as the workers and the management have continued to be at loggerheads over issues that have to do with running the university. The last face-off between the management and the workers over remuneration and unremitted deductions resulted in a one-day closure of the institution by concerned youths in the community.
With the Special Intervention Team’s submitting its report to Governor Godwin Obaseki recently in which it accused the university and its workers of grave misconduct that bother on corruption, it is clear that peace may continue to elude the institution, as the Academic Staff Union of Universities is challenging the report. The union has told the state government to look in the direction of its appointees in the school to unravel the alleged corrupt practices.
The SIT, headed by Andrew Olotu, was set up in 2021 to help advance the government’s vision to reposition the institution to meet global standards. However, it seems the intervention of the SIT may not be working hence the crises erupting in the school due to the action or inaction of the intervention team.
Extortion of students too?
Presenting its report to the state governor on May 11, the Special Intervention Team condemned the high level of certificate and transcript scandal in the university, noting that staff and management of the institution were deliberately withholding certificates and transcripts to extort and rip off graduates. The SIT also alleged that a N2bn tax fraud and other corrupt practices had been committed by the management and staff of the university.
Speaking on behalf of the other members of the intervention team, Austin Osakue, noted that one of the things that had given AAU a bad image globally was the issues of certificates and transcripts processing, noting that the issuance of transcripts and certificates had become the biggest business in the AAU.
He said, “Students, including those who finished from the Political Science Department from 2017 to 2021 don’t know what their certificates look like. They can’t see their results despite having completed their projects and subsequently graduated.
Osakue continued: “There is a cabal in certificate and transcript business in AAU. When complaints on certificates and transcripts come and the management and staff of the institution know that it is tied to the government or the Special Intervention Team, such transcripts and certificates are ready in 48 hours. Also, money for transcripts and certificates exchange hands but never come into the university’s purse.”
He continued, “Over N2bn was owed the Edo State Government from the tax that was never paid to the state’s purse. AAU workers receive more salaries compared to their UNIBEN counterparts, and they never pay taxes. All the internally-generated revenues and school fees collected were not accounted for and all the money entered into private pockets instead of the school purse. We have been able to check this excess and now can collect N32m in taxes for the Edo State Government.
“One of the biggest problems in AAU is overhead spending on diesel. Following the bad electricity situation in Ekpoma, the staff of the institution are cashing in on the situation to steal money from the treasury,” he added.
Governor Godwin Obaseki, while receiving the report, commended the team for their service to the state. He also stated that security agencies would be called in to take care of the criminal aspect of the report. He said, “The greatest legacy for late Prof. Ambrose Alli would be to restore this university to its glory days and that of his dreams.’
A necessary ‘clean up’
“As a government, we have the political will as we are taking a major transformation in our education sector and can do so with our university. We need to clean up the system, preparing it for our children coming in. Your reports show that there is a criminal aspect in your investigation submitted so far. We don’t have to wait for a full report. That is why I invited the security agencies to commence action and investigation on the criminal aspect of your findings today.”
ASUU’s position
In response, the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities of the school, Dr Cyril Onogbosele, said the union had yet to receive the report, but noted that from what was in the media, the report was false, full of misinformation, incorrect and misleading.
The ASUU boss said the report was a direct admittance of failure in the administration of the university in the past two years and confirmed the union’s earlier stand that the SIT lacks exposure and knowledge to run the institution.
The ASUU boss said, “The union views the interim report of the SIT as political, deceptive, uninformed, misleading, mischievous and a grand ploy to deceive the public and the Visitor to the university, in particular, to believe that the university is experiencing the purported “government’s vision of repositioning the institution to meet global standards.”
“The controversial aspect of the report that is of immediate concern and worrisome to the union is what has been perceived as a discovery by the SIT, which is the ‘massive corrupt practices’ in the university. The union has painstakingly examined the ‘deceptions’ dubbed as ‘discoveries’ and ‘achievements’ by the SIT and resolved not to keep or wait for another interim or final report to come up before responding.
“The union insists that if there is this ‘massive’ tax fraud in the university, one would have expected the report to disclose the names and identities of the officers/staff involved, the action taken by the SIT, and their prosecution under the relevant rules and regulations of the university or the law of the state.
“The union condemns any attempt to use a purported tax fraud to blackmail and rubbish the collective integrity of staff of the university. The claim of a discovery of the theft of all IGRs and school fees in the university is insincere, hypocritical, self-serving, and diversionary.
“The visitor to the university may wish to recall that the union had, hitherto, written several memoranda on the need to intervene or direct the relevant organs of the university on matters of corrupt practices, which include financial improprieties, impunity, abuse of due process and law in the university.’’
“The state government cannot claim ignorance that the staff audit exercise authorized by the Omokhodion-led Council found cases of unknown staff and falsification of records in the files of both academic and non-teaching staff. The union has confirmed that efforts to discipline the culprits were crippled by certain government officials.
“There has also been a pending report of the visitation panel to the university in 2020 and the Due Diligence Report. Why has the Government not acted on the reports of various probe committees and the Visitation Panel report pending before it? “Rather, the Visitor to the university and Edo State Government went ahead to dissolve the Omokhodion-led Council and set up SIT, with Austin Osakue, who was an active member of the council as a member.
“The union is bemused by the SIT’s claim of massive certificate and transcript racketeering and other nefarious acts in the institution. One would have expected the SIT to inform the Visitor to the university and the public of the identities of staff prosecuted for the crime in line with the university’s rules and regulations.
“The union views the claim that AAU employees receive more salaries compared to UNIBEN staff and they never pay taxes as laughable and a desperate attempt to justify the unilateral, illegal, and unjust alteration of the Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS) in the university by SIT.
He added, “It confirms SIT’s depth of ignorance on the workings of a university about what makes up the salary of academic staff in public universities in Nigeria. The university system in Nigeria is one, particularly concerning the salary structure of workers. Being a public university like UNIBEN, AAU is guided by the centrally-approved salary structure of CONUASS in the payment of salaries/wages of academic staff.
“There are allowances, like responsibility allowance and excess workload, which are not normally computed with the monthly salaries of academic staff in some universities. In AAU, some of these allowances have been mainstreamed into salaries. In UNIBEN, the excess workload is paid outside salaries. It is, therefore, erroneous to claim that “AAU employee receives more salaries compared to UNIBEN staff.”
“The SIT didn’t have the intelligence to go to Delta State University and Rivers University of Science and Technology which are state-owned universities to find out what they are earning as salaries. In addition, AAU, Ekpoma has always defaulted in the payment of several allowances, which makes payment of arrears inevitable.
“It is also far from the truth that “we never pay taxes in the university”. What is obtainable is that taxes are deducted at the source of payment of salaries. There is no escape route for any staff because the tax due against each member of staff must be deducted by the university administration before effecting the payment of salaries to workers. Pay slips are available to prove this.
“The union has never hidden its disdain for acts of corruption in the university as evidenced in the series of memoranda to the successive university administration to investigate sharp and corrupt practices in the university, irrespective of who is involved. In June 2021, the union petitioned the university administration to cause an investigation into the report of alteration and manipulation of results, forceful sales of textbooks, and illegal collection of monies in the university’s College of Medicine.
“The union does not want to go into the Visitor’s response to the interim report but wishes to advise that the visitor to the university and the public should not be deceived by the so-called interim report of massive corrupt practices in the university.
“A university cannot be properly administered and managed as an appendage of government house where decisions and policies on academic and administrative matters are taken and foisted on the university in a military fashion. As a result of the present comatose situation of the university, the SIT will leave the university worse than it met it two years ago,” he added.
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