By Ragan M. Conteh

The Vice Chancellor of Milton Margia Technical University has disclosed to the Public Account Committee (PAC) in parliament being headed up by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament that the college has been upgraded to university, but are still operating as like a Polytechnic.”

He made the disclosure on Monday 28th January 2024 when answering to queries from the Auditor General’s report, at the Committee one in Parliament, Tower Hill in Freetown.

Speaking on the Audit Report, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Philip Kanu, said the Le 19 billion Leones mentioned in the Audit Report is inherited since 2019.

Prof Philip Kanu went further that, since the university inherited such amount, they have been paying and the remaining amount is Le 2 billion to date.

Prof Kanu also informed the Committee that the Government through the Ministry of Tertiary Education has to pay the university administration a grant in aid running to billions in old Leones.

The Principal disclosed that the Milton Margia University cannot pay their PAYE to government until the government pays the grant-in-aid, adding that it is very critical for their institution at the moment.

He said lots of students are under grant-in-aid and there is small amount of students that pay school fees, adding that if government fails to pay these monies their institution will seriously constraint.

Prof Kanu revealed that the amount of money that government has to pay will offset the institution PAYE amount been recorded by the Audit Service Report.

The Professor pointed out that, the government has also failed to pay the end of year benefits to staff in the institution.

According to Prof Kanu, some of these academic staff have worked for the college for over 30 years and therefore government needs to honour their obligations as the institution has been upgraded to University status.

He said, ASSA and staff of the University are discussing the issue for the payment of end of year service in order to become a reality in the coming months.

The Audit Service Sierra Leone, states that, the fixed asset policy was not submitted for audit.

Therefore, during the hearing the Parliamentary Account Committee has resolved that, every asset owned by the University must be registered at the estate register, and must be properly insured and there must be policy for use of those assets of the university.

Other issues raised by the Auditor General include, the irregularity in payroll administration, the University issues contracts to staff but they were not present for audit.