Comply with cash-less policy or lose subventions

The Ogun State government has warned that any government-owned tertiary institution which fails to adhere to the cash-less policy will, henceforth, lose its subvention.

At its weekly State Executive Council meeting on Monday, the government said full compliance with the state government’s cash-less policy by the institutions would be a pre-condition for the release of government’s subvention due to it, according to the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu.

In a statement in Abeokuta, Olaniyonu said: “Any state government-owned tertiary institution found to have wilfully contravened the cash-less policy of the state government shall forfeit the subvention due it for the period of non-compliance, with immediate effect.”

The decision, Olaniyonu said, became necessary because of the wilful circumvention of the policy by some institutions, which if left unchecked, have dire consequences. He revealed that the state government, which spends N600 million monthly (N7.2 billion per year) on subventions to its tertiary institutions had in September 1, 2012 started the cash-less policy for revenue collection in all the institutions, adding that “to date, all the 11 tertiary institutions had complied as compliance is a pre-condition for the continued receipt of subvention.

“The thrust of the cashless policy is not just to account for revenue collected and block all leakages, but more importantly, to assist the state Ministry of Finance in developing an accurate and sustainable financial model for each tertiary institution. Under the policy, all revenue items of the tertiary institutions are to be collected and accounted for using an electronic platform.

“The implementation of the policy in all tertiary institutions of government has resulted in unprecedented increase in the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the tertiary institutions covered. The IGR rose from N4, 363,806,432 in Year 2012 to N8,221,001,069 in 2013, representing 88.5 per cent increase as a result of the reform,” Olaniyonu stated.

Aside facilitating budgetary planning, cash-less policy, Olaniyonu noted that the implementation has afforded management of tertiary institutions prompt access to automated funds for speedy project execution on campuses and control over students admission and management.