First Nations University of Canada has its main campus in Regina, close to the University of Regina. (CBC)

The First Nations University of Canada says its scholarship fund — a fund that's supposed be worth around $400,000 — has been used "inappropriately" and is nearly empty.

The discovery has the Saskatchewan-based university asking the provincial government for financial help.

Sources have told CBC that the First Nations University Scholarship Fund is supposed to have $390,000 but currently contains less than $15,000.

In an interview Monday, FNUC's newly appointed chief operating officer Del Anaquod said he didn't have the exact figures handy, but $390,000 and $15,000 sounds approximately correct.

In his March 4 letter to Advanced Education Minister Rob Norris, Anaquod said the previous university administration used the money — which comes from individual donations — to pay the school's day-to-day bills.

In previous years, that practice was never considered a problem because future cash flows could be used to replenish the fund, the letter said.

"This inappropriate use of the trust fund was the practice of the previous administration and this practice will not be employed, nor tolerated by the current administration under [any] circumstances," Anaquod said in the letter.

Anaquod is asking for a $100,000 bailout for the scholarship fund.

Last month, before Anaquod was appointed, the province announced it was pulling its $5 million annual grant to FNUC because there hadn't been enough progress reforming the institution.

The federal government later announced it too was pulling its funding, worth about $7 million a year.

First Nations University of Canada, which has about 800 students, has its main campus in Regina and satellite campuses in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.