MBABANE – Funds amounting to around E36 million were allegedly lost at the Eswatini Medical Christian University, which receives subvention from government.
This is reflected in an affidavit, which has been deposed to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) by an officer of the institution and forms part of an ongoing investigation. In the affidavit, it is mentioned that the university had no bursar between 2014 and 2020. As a result, one of the senior officers performed the functions of the bursar, hence had the power to move money out of the various bank accounts.
The names of some of the implicated officers cannot be revealed at this stage, as the investigations are ongoing and no one has been arrested and charged.
As a result, these remain allegations until proven by the court. The affidavit states that the senior officer also performed other functions, including overseeing all student business such as registration and payment of refunds.
From 2016, the affidavit states, the senior officer also oversaw the hiring of all personnel (excluding management) and these included lecturers both full time and part-time as well as moderators.
From that period, the affidavit states that there were a lot of people who were underpaid or overpaid in the payment of salaries, while the accounts office staff were never authorised signatories of the university’s bank account.
The affidavit states that the senior officer lacked the skills and knowledge to apply generally accepted accounting principles in recording, reviewing and authorising the university’s financial transactions.
It is mentioned that the senior officer took it upon himself to perform the functions of the bursar yet there was no council resolution that appointed him.
“In the absence of the bursar, all payments, including cheque payments and electronic transfers should have been reviewed and authorised by the Ministry of Education and Training until the appointment,” it is stated in the affidavit.
One of the anomalies cited in the affidavit involves a payment made to a former employee who left the university in January 2018.
The former employee reportedly continued to receive her salary until May 2018.
A question is posed in the affidavit about how the senior officer was not aware that the former employee had left the university, especially because he was the custodian of all the employees’ files at the time.
Also, it is argued that all salaries, before they are sent to the bank, the senior officer reviewed and authorised them, which makes it harder to believe that he could not pick up the abnormality. Another anomaly cited involved an employee who was hired as a driver in November 2019. The strange thing, the affidavit states, is that at the time, the university had no vehicles for him to drive, hence making his appointment by the senior officer a fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The second strange aspect, as stated in the affidavit, is that the employee accepted his appointment in January 2019, yet his letter of appointment is dated November 2019. This then raises the question of how he could have accepted an appointment that had not yet occurred.
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