TETFund N683billion Grant: Why VCs, Rectors, Provosts Are Afraid Of NASS Oversight

For long, the National Assembly appeared to have taken little notice of how tertiary institutions in the country utilize TETFund grants, but recent revelations about how the fund is squandered by heads of tertiary institutions and lecturers seemed to have ignited interest in the Fund.

President Bola Tinubu recently approved over N683billion as 2024 allocation to beneficiary tertiary institutions under the TETFund scheme.

Based on the approval, which include direct disbursement and zonal intervention, each university will get, for the 2024 intervention cycle, the total amount of N1, 906,944,930.00 while polytechnic will each receive N1,165,355,235.00. Colleges of education will each get N1,398,426,282.00.

The figures were given by the executive secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, during the 2024 Strategic Planning Meeting held with heads of the institutions in January 2024, at the Fund’s headquarters in Abuja.

The TETFund ES advised the heads of the beneficiary institutions to consult widely before implementation of the projects, and ensure that contractors and vendors are paid when due.He deplored a situation where contractors would flood his office with petitions against heads of institutions regarding disbursement of funds.

Taking a cue from the TETFund boss, the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund in a letter dated January 12,2024 and sent to the Secretary General, Committee on Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU), Prof Yakubu Ochefu, issued a letter to all universities alongside their counterparts in Polytechnics and Colleges of Education to submit details of their TETFund interventions and allocation details for consideration. The committee said it was acting in accordance with “Section 80 (3) of the 1999 Constitution to ensure compliance with the Fund’s Guidelines and Establishment Act as part of its oversight functions.”

Without establishing a baseline with their request for detailed implementation plans , how can the Lawmakers conduct an efficient budget performance oversight when they visit the institutions physically sometime later ?

A few days later, the Joint Senate and House Committee on TETFund followed with another letter to provide further clarifications. The letter, addressed to the Chairman of the Committee on Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU). The letter was sighed by the Clerk to the committee, Halima Sadiya Musa.

Titled “Request for Submission of TETFund 2024 Annual Intervention/Direct Disbursement Implementation Details,” the letter requested the universities , Polytechnics and Colleges of Education to submit details of total amount allocated on each of the intervention items. Line items listed by the committee include physical infrastructure/programme upgrade, academic staff training and development, conference attendance, CT support, Library development and institution-based research, among others.

Following the request by NASS, heads of beneficiary universities, polytechnics and colleges of education have switched into panic mode, making subterranean moves to thwart the lawmakers’ attempt to check their implementation plans.

A lecturer in one of the benefiting universities who did not want his name mentioned told THE WHISTLER that the VCs are not comfortable with the plan of NASS to oversight the fund because of what it may expose.

Daily Trust of Saturday 10/02/24 reported that some vice chancellors, rectors and provosts, as well as bursars and accounting officers of the institutions complained that the NASS committee would make life difficult for them.

The paper also claimed that an unnamed VC alleged that the committee was not interested in the institutions but in extorting money from them( an allegation which was not supported with any form of evidence).

But a source in the NASS committee told THE WHISTLER that members were used to being blackmailed by agencies of the government they oversight, but said it will not deter the lawmakers from doing what is right.

Speaking on the letters written to the beneficiary Institutions , he said the oversight functions of legislators is not just to expose corruption and poor implementation of projects but to prevent wastages.

He cited several petitions against the institutions, abandoned and poor quality TETFund projects, wrong procurement processes and lecturers getting stranded abroad when institutions had received full payments as some of the reasons for the oversight.

He said, “Hence the need for a well-structured oversight from allocation and disbursement of funds to its implementation and post -implementation.

“In a bid to ensure proper and efficient utilization of TETFUND intervention , prevent waste of public funds the NASS joint committee on TETFUND issued an invitation to all beneficiary institutions to come forward with their implementation plan for the just released 2024 Intervention allocation letters accordingly.

“One then begins to wonder why the blackmail in a bid to gag parliament in a show of anxiety or plans to evade a constitutional function aimed at promoting transparency and accountability and to show value for Tax Payers money which became an answer to the demands of the need for the TETFUND Intervention in the first place.”

Citing the Constitutional doctrine of “Covering the fields”, another source said the National Assembly has the powers to oversee any area it has made a legislation on and the State Assembly or Government cannot go contrary to it except to complement such efforts.

There are 53 federal universities, 63 state universities, 38 federal polytechnics, 49 state polytechnics and many federal and state colleges of education, among other institutions.

Jail VCs Who Misappropriate TETFund Grant- ASUU

The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, was quoted by The Punch newspaper of April 9, 2023 to have said any vice-chancellor who misappropriates the grant given to their institution by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund deserves to be in jail.

He was quoted to have said, “You don’t need to hold the university, students and parents responsible, hold the vice-chancellors responsible to explain why they cannot retire the funds, and if they didn’t do what they should do, jail them. The university’s money is put somewhere and the value is reduced and even if the VC mismanages the fund, Nigeria’s money is wasted.

“In some universities, their funds will accumulate within four to five years, with the value reducing. Go to campuses and see. Check the date of the TETFUND projects, you will see either 2012 or 2013 but it was completed in 2023. A difference of more than five years but nobody is being punished, judicial panels are not sent, and even if they are sent, the reports are not released. Those are the problems we are fighting in the system.”