The Hall Finance Minister, Tolulope Abodunrin, alongside the Social and Buttery Minister, Ebun Adedeji, has been condemned and referred by the hall assembly for disciplinary action on account of misappropriation of funds. This happened at the last hall assembly meeting which held on Friday, 3rd March 2023, at the Famewo Common Room (FCR).
Shortly after the minutes of the previous meeting were read by the clerk, and a new honourable, Obianuju Ekekwem, was co-opted from the D2 constituency; the finance minister stepped forward to fill the house in with reports of the income and expenditure of the hall (each executive office, the hall assembly and the hall management) over the last 76 days.
The assembly found the reports defective as there were discrepancies between the budget approved for the freshers’ welcome and the expenditure reported by the financial secretary. Some other expenses were also not accounted for in the financial report.
The finance minister was questioned, and she explained that after the budget for the freshers’ welcome had been approved, certain circumstances arose which necessitated the SBM requesting extra funds. And she did grant her request.
The SBM explained in greater detail that there was a change of plans for the freshers’ welcome (e.g replacing plans for a movie night with a party), which inevitably changed the budget. She said that she also discovered that the prices of things she needed to buy had drastically risen above the budget, hence the decision to request for more funds.
However, none of these excuses were accepted by the honourables. They maintained that, regardless of whatever circumstance, the due process ought to have been followed. While they seemed not to have had any problem with the sudden change in plans, they argued that every Kobo to be spent from the hall’s account must be taken only by the permission of the hall assembly; otherwise is misappropriation of public funds, which is punishable under the law of ABH.
Moving forward, the legislators:
1. Ordered the Finance Minister to refund the extra amount of money taken from the hall’s account within 30 days,
2. Referred both the SBM and Finance Minister to the disciplinary committee and
3. Rejected the report and ordered that a corrected version be taken at the next meeting.
Reports on disciplinary action(s) to be taken would be given at the next hall assembly meeting.
