Charles Ogwo
Amid growing concerns about governance in Nigerian public universities, the federal government has backed the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in investigating alleged corruption and mismanagement of Tertiary Education Trust Fund allocations involving some vice-chancellors across the country.
The lecturers’ union expressed concerns about the weak supervision of vice-chancellors in implementing TETFund projects, emphasizing that some university administrators have misused funds intended for their institutions.
Chris Piwuna, the president of ASUU, made this known at the public presentation of 72 TETFund-sponsored academic textbooks in Abuja.
“Yes, there is plenty of money being given to the universities in recent years. Sadly, many of them have not utilised it effectively. While some of them have mismanaged it, others have used them for different purposes than what they were meant for.
“They come back because they know that TETFUND will make another disbursement to the institutions the following year. I think there should be more scrutiny about what’s been going on with TETFUND interventions in the universities, especially in the Centres of Excellence,” Piwuna said.
In addition, the ASUU president said, “TETFund has just added about six more Centres of Excellence to the existing 30 that are obviously not well. Most of them are performing below expectations. Hence, they must be made to account for those monies.
“We are going to turn our searchlights on the vice-chancellors and our universities soon. Honestly, we will. Because funds are not being properly managed at the university levels, we are going to take them up to make sure that they account for all of them.”
Tunji Alausa, the minister of education, expressed support for ASUU’s planned scrutiny of vice chancellors, especially regarding TETFund disbursements.
“Several of our Vice Chancellors, Rectors, and Provosts are running the institutions like an empire. We need your (ASUU) help in ensuring that fiduciary responsibilities are met and that they are held accountable.
“Every single money that we deploy to those institutions should be used the way they are meant to be used. We would work with you (ASUU) to ensure that that’s being done,” he said.
TETFund is a statutory intervention agency established by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act 2011 to support public tertiary education in Nigeria.
It was created to supplement the funding of government-owned universities, polytechnics and colleges of education by disbursing revenues from a two per cent education tax paid by registered companies.
TETFund’s mandate includes financing infrastructure, instructional materials, equipment, research and academic staff development across public institutions, intending to improve learning environments and academic quality.
Over the years, stakeholders in the education sector, including ASUU, have made varied observations about the implementation and utilisation of TETFund interventions.
While some observers point to the agency’s role in funding projects that would not have been possible through routine budgets, there have also been periodic calls from ASUU and others for stronger oversight and accountability in how individual institutions manage their allocations.
These concerns include the pace of project execution, adherence to guidelines and reporting mechanisms, prompting debates on how to ensure that TETFund resources achieve their intended impact.
Charles Ogwo
Charles Ogwo is a proactive journalist, driving education, and business innovations for over 10 years.
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Source: Businessday.ng | Read the Full Story…
