…Luo warns of stern action
Kwame Nkrumah in K900,000 unretired imprest
THERE is glaring financial mismanagement at Kwame Nkrumah University in involving K900,000 unretired imprest and failure to account for equipment worth K1 million, Higher Education Minister Professor Nkandu Luo has revealed in Parliament.
Prof Luo said added to this mismanagement at the Kabwe-based institution was the tendency by some lecturers to inflate overtime days to colossal sums amounting to K65, 000 within a period of only three weeks.
She said lecturers at the university were claiming for 511 days or more in a year when they had a total of 365 days.
“Mr Speaker, I must say that some of the figures asked by the lecturers were actually believed to be inflated and management asked for them to be authenticated as they were as high as K65, 000 in overtime within a period of three weeks but those within a normal range were paid promptly,” she said.
Prof. Luo warned that all those who would be found wanting would be disciplined and should not blame it on tribalism allegations saying the financial mismanagement at the university was worrisome.
Prof. Luo made the remarks in response to a question for oral answer from Kabwe Central MP Tutwa Ngulube who indicated that Mulungushi University was given responsibility to run Kwame Nkrumah as it lacked the required staff qualification of professors and PHD holders.
And Prof Luo disclosed that the reopening of Kwame Nkrumah had been delayed because lecturers decided to withdraw their labour on grounds of excess workload which resulted in exaggerated overtime figures.
She said the university was supposed to open on January 15, 2018 after a team of inspectors from Kabwe Municipal Council Public Health department conducted inspections on February 8th, 2018 to check on sanitation standards in the wake of the cholera epidemic.