Naijaonpoint
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor Simeon Bamire, one of Nigeria’s most respected federal universities is facing uncomfortable questions after a Federal Government review of its 2024 financial year uncovered ₦817,204,820.01 in irregularities, including a massive revenue remittance failure and a missing financial report that has left the public in the dark about the institution’s true financial position.
At the heart of the findings is ₦623,133,012.46 in internally generated revenue that the university collected but never handed over to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, as federal financial regulations demand. That is more than ₦623 million that should have gone to the Treasury but did not.
A separate finding flagged ₦194,071,807.55 in irregularities tied to the procurement of vehicles raising questions about how those contracts were awarded and whether due process was followed.
Perhaps most troubling, the university did not submit its required financial statements for the year under review at all. That means OAU’s actual financial standing for 2024 has never been independently verified through the process every federal institution is required to complete.
Professor Simeon Bamire has led OAU as its 12th Vice-Chancellor since June 2022, a tenure that covers the entire period examined in the review and continues today. As the university’s chief executive and accounting officer, the responsibility for the unremitted revenue, the vehicle procurement irregularities, and the missing financial statements falls squarely on his administration.
For a university that demands discipline and rigour from its own students and researchers, the findings present an uncomfortable contrast. Revenue collected but not remitted, and a required financial statement that simply was not submitted, together create a transparency gap that leaves Nigerians unable to see how one of the country’s flagship universities actually manages its money.
The rules that were broken are clear. The Financial Regulations 2009 require that internally generated revenue be promptly remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund a requirement violated to the tune of ₦623.13 million. The Public Procurement Act 2007 governs how vehicles should be procured, a process undermined by ₦194.07 million in irregularities. And the statutory obligation to submit required financial statements for public scrutiny was not met at all.
Source: …Secretsreporters