University Of Calabar hit by financial crisis

• Staff Blames It On Profligacy, Corruption

The University of Calabar is hard hit with financial crisis, as it cannot take care of its numerous overheads.

Some persons in the university have attributed this to poor financial management by the school authority, which attributed it to general poor funding of universities by the Federal Government, and leakages in the University of Calabar financial system.

Top officials of the school told The Guardian: “The university overshot its budget for the year and no backup for approvals, no impress, suggesting lack of financial management, as council meetings have not been hosted for a long time due to lack of funds.

“Former administration used to get between N1.2b and N1.5b as school fees in a session, but now it is getting about N700m, while an average of N145m comes as quarterly subvention, yet top management staff collect allowances for official travel that is neither here nor there. Besides, for quite sometime, the university has been bedeviled with series of crisis, as it is said to be a regular visitor to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) over financial matters and not too long ago, the former Bursar of the school, Mr. Peter Agi was removed in a controversial circumstance, which is now a legal matter.”

Spokesman for the university, Dr. Joseph Ekpang said: “The university of Calabar is very broke. We don’t get quarterly subvention, but they give us monthly subvention for salaries and little amount for overhead, which cannot carry the overhead.”