The Assembly said the investigation was necessary before further public funds could be committed to the institution.
In September, the House formally summoned the Vice-Chancellor and other officials to appear before the committee, relying on Sections 128 and 129 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The committee was also mandated to determine whether funds released to the university were used for the purposes for which they were provided and ascertain the number and identities of beneficiaries of the scholarship programme.
At an earlier sitting, Maol expressed dissatisfaction over the failure of the Vice-Chancellor, Commissioner for Finance and Accountant-General to appear before the committee.
He subsequently gave the affected officials another opportunity to appear on September 24, warning that the Assembly could invoke its constitutional powers if they failed to comply.
Maol said the Vice-Chancellor was required to appear because he was the chief accounting officer of the university and, therefore, the appropriate official to explain financial documents presented before the committee.
“The only person who can come and speak to this document presented by the Ministry of Finance to this committee is the Chief Accounting Officer of the university, which is the Vice-Chancellor, and that is in line with the Constitution,” he said.
The disagreement intensified after lawyers representing PAMO University appeared before the committee instead of the Vice-Chancellor.
The university’s counsel, Chukwuma Chinwo, questioned the jurisdiction of the Assembly over the privately owned institution and argued that the Vice-Chancellor could not be compelled to appear before the committee under the circumstances.
Chinwo said the university had advised the Vice-Chancellor not to appear.
He argued that the funds being investigated were linked to scholarships for students rather than direct appropriations to the private university.
“There were no funds appropriated to PAMO University. Now, if you give a scholarship to your student, which is quite good, it is like a father who is training his child in the university, and there are students of private sponsorship there,” he said.
The Assembly, however, maintained that the funds under investigation were public resources and that it had a constitutional responsibility to establish how they were disbursed and utilised.
The lawmakers also insisted that the Vice-Chancellor remained the appropriate official to provide explanations on the financial records presented to the committee.
According to the committee, documents obtained from the state Ministries of Finance and Education raised questions about the amount released to PAMO University and the number of students said to have benefited from the scholarship programme.
The lawmakers also raised concerns over alleged discrepancies among financial records presented by government agencies.
Speaker Martin Amaewhule said the Assembly’s interest was to establish what happened to the funds released by the state government.
He acknowledged that the scholarship programme was intended to support students but expressed concern about the manner in which the scheme was implemented.
Amaewhule said documents from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and the Office of the Accountant-General did not completely agree on the financial figures presented to the Assembly.
The Speaker further claimed that records before the House indicated that more than N29 billion had been released to PAMO University, while about N5 billion could be accounted for as utilised.
The Assembly has consequently recommended that the Rivers State Government establish a mechanism to recover any funds found to be unaccounted for and return such money to the state’s Consolidated Revenue Account.
The lawmakers are also seeking clearer documentation of the students covered by the scholarship arrangement and the amounts spent on their education.
The committee’s investigation was initially scheduled to be concluded with a report to the House on or before September 30.
The Assembly’s inquiry into PAMO University’s funding dates back to the state government’s decision to support students at the institution. The House formally constituted the committee in September to examine disbursements made since 2017 and determine how the funds were utilised.
The outcome of the investigation is expected to determine whether the Assembly will recommend further action concerning the scholarship scheme and any funds it considers unaccounted for.
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