Fraud In Uniosun: Parliament Investigates Contracts’ Award Processes

The State of Osun House of Assembly has commenced investigation into the financial activities of the authorities of Osun State University, with a view to unravelling the circumstances surrounding the crisis bedeviling the citadel of learning as a result of allegations of fraud.

The house arrived at the decision to probe the financial transactions at a meeting between the House Committee on public Accounts, Management of Osun State University and the Auditor General of the State at the State Assembly Complex Osogbo.

The Chairman House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Rasheed Afolabi who led the house committee and the Auditor-General on a fact finding mission to various sites of the multi-campus University expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of work done on some of the projects in the school.

The first project site inspected by the House committee on public accounts together with a representative of Auditor General was the convocation arena at the main campus in Osogbo which was handled by Ibn. Muheeb Construction Company at the cost N45m with additional loan of N8m granted the contractor which was said to have collapsed in 2013 and was reconstructed by the school management.

Also, the committee inspected the Sola Akinrinade’s Library Complex at the main campus where it was revealed that the project was awarded at the cost of N541m to Bentow Bau Construction Company only for the firm to sublet it to De-Kling Construction Company at the rate of N180m.

The committee chairman who expressed concerned over what he described as a non-transparent process of award and shoddy projects execution directed that all documents relating to the contracts be forwarded to the legislature.

He said, “The contractors need to appear before the House to explain and clear some salient issues”.

Another point of call was the library complex at Okuku campus being handled by Atidade Construction Company where structural defects on the project were observed by the committee and on which a number of questions were raised.

On the issue of the roof, which was said to have been blown off sometime in June as observed in the Auditor General’s report, the project Manager Taiwo Olaniyi explained the incident, saying it has been agreed that over N4m expended on repair will be shared between the university and the contractor.

At Ejigbo campus, the committee also inspected the library complex constructed by Ibn Muheeb Construction Company at the cost of N190m. it was discovered that the project handed over in 2010 was under lock and key and said to have been declared unsafe but it was also observed that the walls of the building were already cracking while other parts were about to start caving in.

The committee chairman expressed dissatisfaction on the decision of the school management to give two important projects to a contractor who has litany of bad records and also indicted the school’s Director of Works and the deputy for looking the other way while the design and standard were being compromised.

According to Afolabi, the committee decided to investigate the school management as a result of the audit query raised by the Auditor-General’s office over non-compliance with financial conducts on contracts awards, Acting Appointments and financial Mismanagement.

The house Committee has pledged to invite the affected stakeholders to the plenary to explain their roles in the execution of various projects in the campus.

It would be recalled that the management of Uniosun had in recent times been involved in different financial atrocities, which has put the school in public glare leading to the termination of the appointment of various principal officers of the school.