A student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Stanley Yanful has petitioned the institution's management to investigate what he perceives to be a "questionable" budget put together by the Students Representative Council (SRC).
The student alleges discrepancies and mismanagement in the utilization of the student fund, claiming that the current student administration led by Yvonne Osei Adobea approved a substantial increase in the annual budget without proper justification and consultation.
He argues that the lack of transparency creates room for possible financial malfeasance and undermines accountability towards students whose fees contribute to the running of the council.
A copy of the petition intercepted by JoyNews reads, "how can a budget be acceptable without the signature of the SRC President, and even that of the Financial Secretary? Why should we consider a budget without title and letter head as an official budget? Over forty-two-page document, and there was no amount of money for execution stated in the budget."
According to the student, the SRC administration has failed to account for several events it has undertaken since assuming office.
“Several programs hosted by the SRC board were not stated in the budget, so, where did they get the capital to organize those programs, and why were they not addressed in the budget?”
The petition continues that: “co-curriculum activities (sports and entertainment) were not allowed to occur due to the cataclysmic clash that happened between Unity and Katanga hall, but it was addressed in the budget that, there has been 20 percent increment on entertainment activities and 25 percent on sports activities, so, what were those increments used for if there was no co-curriculum activities within the academic year?”.
Stanley Yanful is also requesting a probe into the over 850,000 Ghana cedis used to purchase a vehicle for the university's Police Service by the previous administration led by former SRC President, Frank Owusu.
“This is becoming a persisting culture of the KNUST institution just as the last administration led by Frank Owusu purchased a police vehicle of Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand Ghana cedis, (850,000,000) which mounted to nothing beneficial to the institution, and of which we even doubt the price”.
He is, therefore, asking for the constitution of a committee to scrutinize records related to disbursement and the overall expenditure of the SRC.
Meanwhile, the SRC maintains that they acted within their mandate when approving the contentious budget.
In response to the allegations, the SRC President stated that all the accusations are untrue.
The university has since received the petition and is expected to act upon the request of the concerned student.
Credit: Nana Boakye Dankwah Yiadom