The Federation ‘s Office of the Auditor General has found financial infringements in Nigerian Law School records.
The 2015 Auditor-General ‘s report submitted to the Senate Committee on Public Account, indicted the apex legal academic institution. The violations ranged from gross misappropriation to unapproved expenditures and pension diversion.
The 2015 Financial Report of the office is currently being scrutinised by the Senate Public Accounts Committee for investigation.
According to the report, in 2015, the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation issued nine queries to the management of Nigerian Law School.
The report said Nigerian Law School management unlawfully transferred N32 m to an unidentified cleaner ‘s account over a 12 month period.
In violation of Nigeria ‘s Financial Act, the Auditor-General report also queried the payment of N36 m as a dressing allowance of 52 workers to the account of a single staff member.
The report reads in part: “The examination of payment records revealed that the Nigerian law school several times paid N36 million to staff as dressing allowance in 2013 alone.
“The Management could not substantiate these payments with any approval from Salaries and Wages Commission to enable the audit team to determine the genuineness of these payments to staff. No appropriation in this request.”
The queries also said N34.3 million was paid out for staff training without the federal government ‘s approval.
The report of the Auditor-General further disclosed from the review of the salary voucher that, contrary to the current Financial Policy, the Law School used the pension funds at different intervals to cover costs not related to the payment of the pension.
The institution’s management, headed by its Director-General, Prof. Isa Chiroma, appeared to address questions before the Senate panel on Thursday, July 2.
In response to the questions, Prof. Isa Chiroma said that he was not the institution’s Director-General during the time under review but accepted that “government is a continuum.”
The Director-General said on payment of N36 million as dressing allowance, “I can’t imagine the Law School paying N36 million into one account on behalf of others.”
However, his response was not good enough for the Senate panel to vacate the petition.
Committee members established that Chiroma was not the Law School DG at the time of the financial impropriety. Nevertheless, the panel ordered him to recover the money involved and return it to the account of the school.