NMMU staff have to repay bonus money

ELEVEN NMMU staff members who received unsanctioned bonuses have been ordered to repay the thousands of rands they pocketed.

The money was allegedly paid out towards the end of last year and was put through the books in the form of secondary contracts, which are drawn up when staff perform work over and above their regular duties.

But an investigation uncovered the irregular payments and the misappropriation of funds involving the Port Elizabeth institution’s Department of Applied Language Studies.

NMMU spokeswoman Debbie Derry said yesterday the staff had been ordered to pay back the money to the university.

“While there is insufficient evidence to support a disciplinary process, the allocation of the secondary contracts and payments of funds towards them and the monies received by 11 individuals cannot be justified and is improper,” she said.

The investigation probed the allocation of bonuses to 12 contract and five permanent staff members, including the head of Applied Language Studies Department, Dr Hilda Israel.

According to Derry, only 11 of the initial 17 staff members have been ordered to repay the unauthorised money.

“The university has further decided that in order to avoid the recurrence of incidences such as these the finance department should issue express guidelines regarding the application of funding, and the extent to which authorisation must be . . . sought and obtained,” she said.

While most received about R10 000, Israel was alleged to have paid herself R70 000.

Some of the staff members who received the bonuses said they had become suspicious about where the money had come from and raised the alarm.

The matter was then taken up by senior staff and an audit was undertaken.

NMMU arts faculty executive dean Professor Rose Boswell said no disciplinary action would be taken against Israel or any other staff member.