The Benue House of Assembly has urged Governor Samuel Ortom to increase the monthly salary grant to Benue State University, Makurdi, N20.1 million to enable the institution to pay the salaries of its 142 newly recruited academic staff.
The House made the appeal while debating on the report of its Committee on Education, Science and Technology during plenary on Thursday.
The House also appealed to Ortom to grant a bailout fund to the tune of N180.2 million to enable the university to continue to pay salaries of the newly recruited staff.
The Committee Chairman, Mr William Ortyom, (Guma/PDP), led the debate on the report.
He said the shortage of academic staff was the reason the management approached the governor with a request for employment and replacement of staff that were no longer in the services of the university.
Ortyom said the management in its request attached a diligent summary sheet of the financial implications of the attrition that showed a monthly gross of N20.9 million and it was approved by the governor.
He said it was after the university had carried out the recruitment exercise that the management informed the state government of their inability to pay the new lecturers and claimed that the savings as a result of the attrition was used to pay staff on sabbatical, part-time and visiting appointments.
The House Deputy Speaker, Mr Christopher Adaji, and Majority Leader, Mr Damian Cheme, condemned the diversion of monies meant for payment of salaries of newly recruited academic staff for other purposes.
Adaji and Cheme also condemned what they called the over employment of 142 staff instead of the 76 approved by the visitor to the institution.
In this light, the Speaker, Mr Titus Uba, frowned at the previous management of the university, led by Professor Msugh Kembe, for misleading the governor on the fact that savings from the attrition was being used for other purposes instead of payment of newly recruited academic staff.
Uba said such an act could cause financial embarrassment to the state government, warning the management to desist from further occurrence of “such fraudulent acts to avoid sanction”.
