RIVERS, NIGERIA– The Rivers State Home of Assembly has bought the arrest of the Vice-Chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, following his failure to appear before an advertisement hoc committee examining funds released to the institution by the state federal government.
The decision followed repeated invites issued to the Vice-Chancellor by the committee, which is examining the monetary relationship between the Rivers State Government and the independently owned university, especially funds supplied under a scholarship program for Rivers indigenes.
The seven-member committee, chaired by the Deputy Speaker of your house, Dumle Maol, had actually directed the Vice-Chancellor to appear before it and discuss how funds released to the university were utilised.
Your house had also summoned the State Accountant-General, Commissioner for Financing, Commissioner for Education and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education as part of the investigation.
While a few of the government authorities appeared before the committee, the Vice-Chancellor was absent.
The Commissioner for Education, Peters Nwagor, attended the sitting and reacted to concerns from the legislators.
The latest action represents an escalation of the disagreement in between the Assembly and the university management over the probe into public funds launched to PAMO University.
The examination followed the Assembly’s decision to eliminate a proposed N6 billion allowance for PAMO University from the 2026 Rivers State budget.
Your house consequently made up an advertisement hoc committee to determine the amount of money launched to the university since 2017, develop how the funds were utilised and identify recipients of the state’s scholarship arrangement.
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The Assembly said the examination was necessary before more public funds could be committed to the organization.
In September, the House officially summoned the Vice-Chancellor and other authorities to appear before the committee, depending on Areas 128 and 129 of the 1999 Constitution, as changed.
The committee was also mandated to determine whether funds released to the university were utilized for the purposes for which they were provided and ascertain the number and identities of beneficiaries of the scholarship programme.
At an earlier sitting, Maol revealed discontentment over the failure of the Vice-Chancellor, Commissioner for Financing and Accountant-General to appear before the committee.
He subsequently provided the afflicted authorities another opportunity to appear on September 24, warning that the Assembly might invoke its constitutional powers if they failed to comply.
Maol said the Vice-Chancellor was required to appear because he was the chief accounting officer of the university and, therefore, the proper official to describe monetary files provided before the committee.
“The only person who can come and speak with this file presented by the Ministry of Financing to this committee is the Chief Accounting Officer of the university, which is the Vice-Chancellor, which remains in line with the Constitution,” he said.
The difference magnified after attorneys representing PAMO University appeared before the committee instead of the Vice-Chancellor.
The university’s counsel, Chukwuma Chinwo, questioned the jurisdiction of the Assembly over the privately owned institution and argued that the Vice-Chancellor might not be obliged to appear before the committee under the scenarios.
Chinwo said the university had encouraged the Vice-Chancellor not to appear.
He argued that the funds being examined were connected to scholarships for students instead of direct appropriations to the personal university.
“There were no funds appropriated to PAMO University. Now, if you give a scholarship to your trainee, which is quite excellent, it is like a father who is training his child in the university, and there are trainees of private sponsorship there,” he said.
The Assembly, nevertheless, kept that the funds under examination were public resources which it had a constitutional responsibility to develop how they were paid out and used.
The legislators also firmly insisted that the Vice-Chancellor remained the suitable authorities to supply explanations on the financial records presented to the committee.
According to the committee, documents obtained from the state Ministries of Finance and Education raised questions about the amount launched to PAMO University and the number of trainees stated to have actually taken advantage of the scholarship program.
The legislators also raised issues over supposed disparities amongst monetary records provided by federal government agencies.
Speaker Martin Amaewhule said the Assembly’s interest was to establish what occurred to the funds released by the state federal government.
He acknowledged that the scholarship program was intended to support trainees however revealed concern about the way in which the scheme was executed.
Amaewhule stated files from the Ministry of Financing, Ministry of Education and the Office of the Accountant-General did not entirely agree on the financial figures provided to the Assembly.
The Speaker further declared that records before the House indicated that more than N29 billion had actually been released to PAMO University, while about N5 billion could be represented as utilised.
The Assembly has subsequently recommended that the Rivers State Federal government establish a mechanism to recover any funds discovered to be unaccounted for and return such cash to the state’s Consolidated Profits Account.
The lawmakers are likewise seeking clearer documents of the students covered by the scholarship arrangement and the amounts invested in their education.
The committee’s examination was at first set up to be concluded with a report to the House on or before September 30.
The Assembly’s query into PAMO University’s funding dates back to the state government’s choice to support trainees at the organization. Your house officially made up the committee in September to examine disbursements made since 2017 and figure out how the funds were made use of.
The result of the investigation is anticipated to figure out whether the Assembly will recommend further action worrying the scholarship scheme and any funds it thinks about unaccounted for.