The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has abandoned 14 projects valued at GH¢78.9million, funded from Internally Generated Fund (IGF) – with most of them left for about eight years, the 2020 Auditor General’s (AG) report has revealed.
The report said seven of the projects, which were delayed and abandoned in the bush and between the completion stages of 87-99 percent, had damaged air-conditioners, broken windows, rotten door-frames and other forms of severe deterioration.
Further reviews disclosed that the University’s College of Distance Education spent almost GH¢3million on hiring conference rooms for training due to a five percent delay in completing a designated training centre – a training resort and conference centre at Agona Nyakrom for the university.
While the AG has indicated that value for money was not achieved from the total amount of GH¢78.9million spent on the projects, it blames the university’s directorate of physical development for not ensuring the contractors worked on time to deliver the projects.
Some of the projects include construction of the School of Agriculture Complex; a 3-storey project for the School of Graduate Studies; Science Faculty Annex; School of Business building; student union complex; a 1-storey student study structure for School of Medical Sciences; a classroom block, administration block and library block, a laboratory and an estate road – all for the School of Medical Sciences, and many other projects outside the university campus.
The AG strongly recommended that management of the university should ensure early completion of the projects to save them from further deterioration. It also urged the university to investigate the cause of delays to enable it enforce its rights under the construction contract where applicable.
Meanwhile, the university has indicated that it terminated contracts for two of the projects and has repackaged them to be awarded to another contactor.
Four of the projects have also been earmarked for continuance in 2022, with work projected to resume on some of them before end of the year.
Management of the university has also attributed the anomalies to contract management challenges, which it states are being addressed.
What the law says
Section 52 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) states that a Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity, state-owned enterprise or public corporation shall be responsible for the assets of the institution under the care of the Principal Spending Officer, and shall ensure that proper control systems exist for the custody and management of the assets.