It has come to light that some 1,610 students of the Bolgatanga Technical University owe the institution in excess of Ghc2 million.
This was contained in the Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana – Technical Universities for the year ended 31 December 2021.
Portions of the statement read, “Regulation 46 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L. 1: 2378) provides that a Principal Spending Officer shall ensure that non-tax revenue is efficiently collected. 161. On the contrary, we noted that 1,610 students owed the University a total amount of GH¢2,708,282.80 as at 31 December 2021. The summary of student’s indebtedness is shown in table 14.”
“The absence of an effective debt collection strategy to recover revenue due the University accounted for the irregularity. Uncollected revenue denies the University the needed funds to undertake its activities.”
The Auditor General’s report continued to say, “we recommended to Management to establish an effective debt collection strategy to recover the overdue fees from the students.”
“Management indicated that the high outstanding student debtors as at 31 December 2021 resulted from the delay in reopening of the University due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. They further stated that the outstanding school fees would be recovered by the end of the second semester.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
