Reactions of lawmakers at the Red Chamber during the week show that in the days ahead, the Senate will take the initiative to pass a bill that will reform the Technical Education Fund (TETFUND), reports Assistant Editor, Onyedi Ojiabor
IT was one of the high profile motions ever proposed in the Senate. Senators were agitated as the mover of the motion, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, reeled out mind bugling allegations of gross mismanagement of hard earned education tax funds.
It was not difficult for the backers of the motion to secure the mandate of the upper chamber to launch investigative hearing into the management of funds by officials of the money spinning education agency.
The Senate had on December 2nd, 2015 resolved to deliberate on a motion on alleged gross mismanagement of Education Tax Fund between 2011 and 2015. The adoption of the resolution was unanimous, apparently due to the weight of the claims.
The allegation however collapsed like a pack of cards after what was described as a meticulous investigation by the committee saddled to dig into the charges.
The assertions contained in the motion may have crumbled under the weight of investigation but Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, strongly believed that Senate should take immediate steps to block loopholes in the management of funds especially when it has become obvious that some agencies are becoming larger than the government that created them.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund, Senator Jibrin Barau (Kano North), who was mandated to lead a team of his committee members to probe the allegations, presented report of the investigation of the allegations, detailing how the funds under probe were spent.
The motion, he said, raised the following issues: That some institutions got multiple allocations of special interventions while institutions that are their peers did not receive any;
That TETFund granted a loan to the Federal Ministry of Education to organise a workshop and retreat in United States and Kenya in 2014 and 2015 outside the guideline of the Act;
That a whooping sum of N500 million was spent on advertisement and media in 2015;
That TETFund spent nearly N1trillion between 2011 and 2015 without visible outcome; and
That N200 billion collected between 2012 -2013 was diverted to unknown and unspecified uses not recognized under the Act.
Senator Barau said that as part of its methodology for the probe, the Committee held several meetings with TETFund officials, Ministry of Education officials, Ministry of Finance, Accountant General and Debt Management Office.
On the allegation that some institutions got multiple allocations of special interventions while institutions that are their peers did not receive any, Barau said top officials of TETFund explained that though the provisions of Section 7(2)(b) stipulates that the Board of Trustees shall “administer, manage and disburse tax on the basis of equality among the six (6) geo-political zones of the federation in the case of special intervention”, Section 7(4) further states that the Board of Trustees ”shall have power to give due consideration to the peculiarities of each geo-political zone in the disbursement and management of the tax.”
It is in exercise of this power that TETFund gives grant of special intervention. However it is on record that there is no tertiary institution in the country that have not benefitted from the Special Intervention at one time or the other.
On the issue of granting of loan to the Federal Ministry of Education and organising a workshop and retreat in US and Kenya in 2014 and 2015 outside the provision of the Act; Barau informed that it was submitted that no loan was granted to the Federal Ministry of Education and that the Fund did not organise any retreat or workshop in US and Kenya. However, a staff management retreat was organised in Abuja, anchored by the Public Service Institute of Nigeria during the period in question.
The committee was also told that the Fund equally ran a one week capacity building programme for professors and researchers in the universities to build their capacity in research and development skills. According to him, plans were already on to extend the programme to senior researchers in Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
On the issue of a whooping sum of N500 million budgeted for adverts and media in 2015, Barau said it submitted that the money came from the administrative cost which is five percent of the total education tax collected which is allowed under the Act. The probe committee was further told that the N500m was not from intervention fund set aside for rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation projects in the tertiary institutions.
Barau said top official of the agency justified the expenditure on the ground that stakeholders, investors and citizens needed to be encouraged to pay education tax by showcasing the numerous achievements which the Fund had made over the years.
On the issue of spending nearly N1trillion from 2011to 2015, Barau said that TETFund submitted that the total money received by the Fund between 2011 and 2015 amounted to N507‚090‚848,969.87 and not N1 trillion as alleged.
The amount, he said, was corroborated by Accountant General and the Central Bank of Nigeria
The officials are said to have stated further that TETFund intervention had evidently improved the state of physical infrastructure, research, teaching and learning environment in the country’s institutions nationwide while Executive Secretary maintained that before the establishment of Tetfund, no Nigerian university was ranked among the top 100 in Africa, but that as at today, 28 Nigerian universities are now ranked among the top 100 in Africa.
On the issue of diversion of N200 billion collected between 2012 -2013 to unknown and unspecified uses not recognised under the Act, Barau informed that the Executive Secretary informed the Committee that there was no diversion of funds whatsoever by TETfund rather the Federal Government, under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan in response to Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) agitations, in 2012, took the money and spent it on the implementation of agreement with ASUU on Revitalisation of Universities’ Infrastructural Needs in which the Federal Government committed to spending N1.3 trillion in six years beginning with N200 billion in 2013 and N220 billion yearly from 2014 to 2018.
The panel boss said the actual money belonging to TETFund that was diverted to other uses by the former administration of President Goodluck Jonathan that was to be refunded was N273.99billion. This was the actual amount due to TETFund from Education Tax for 2013.
The Committee was also informed that the approval for the refund had already been given in May, 2015 by former administration and that the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has revalidated the approval of the refund in September 2015 and directed that provision be made in 2016 budget.
On allegation that some institutions got multiple allocations for special interventions while institutions that are their peers did not receive any, Barau said the Committee found out that Special Interventions were introduced to address critical needs of the institutions in areas where their normal allocations could not address such as programme upgrades, improvements of learning and teaching environments. Besides, the committee discovered that there is no tertiary institution in the country that has not benefitted from special intervention at one time or the other.
On the allegation that about N200 billion of the Education tax collected between 2012-2013 was diverted to unknown and unspecified uses not recognised in or permitted under the Act, the committee found out that funds which amounted to N273‚931‚254‚708.51, (two per cent Tertiary Education Tax) collections for 2013 was not transferred to TETFund project account in 2014.
Committee, Barau said, discovered that the amount was diverted to finance various expenditures, including the Revitalisation of Universities’ infrastructure and payment of allowances of Academic Staff of Nigerian Universities during the period under reference on the approval of the former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The committee informed that the diversion of TETFund money to other uses was possible because: The loophole in the TETFund Act, which allows only the President to be the approving authority for this very important agency that always has huge amount of money in its coffers without including the requirements of the National Assembly’s approval in line with the democratic dictate of checks and balances. This is in clear violation of Section 82(4) of the Constitution of Nigeria which states that “no moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly,” and the fact that the Executive Secretary and the members of the Board of Trustees were all solely appointed by the President and not confirmed by the Senate made them not to have the strength to raise objection or to nip in the bud the diversion of TETFund money to other uses.
Barau said the Committee recently found out long after the conclusion of its investigation that contrary to the assertion by a former Executive Secretary that the whole N273,931‚254‚708.51 billion was diverted to meet the expenditure as stated above, it was later revealed to the Committee by the recently appointed Executive Secretary that N10 billion out of the N273,931‚254‚708.51 billion was actually loaned to the PTDF which the PTDF had recently refunded to TETFund, leaving a balance of N263‚931,254‚708.51 billion to be refunded by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The revelation, Barau said, was made to the Committee about three weeks ago during an interactive meeting with the officials of TETFund, led by its new Executive Secretary, Dr. A. B. Baffa.
On the claim that the Board granted a loan to the Federal Ministry of Education and also organised a workshop and pre-retreat in US and Kenya in 2014-2015 without recourse to guidelines of the fund, “the Committee found out that the Board did not give a loan to the Federal Ministry of Education and did not organise any retreat or workshop in US and Kenya as alleged.”
On the allegation that the sum of N500 million budgeted for advertising and media 201S budget contravened rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of Tertiary Education in Nigeria in accordance to section 3(i) of the TETFund Act 2011, the Committee agreed with Executive Secretary’s detailed explanation that the internal working budget was always from the five percent cost of administration provided by the Act and not from the intervention Fund.
That after spending nearly one trillion naira between 2011 and 2015 by TETFund, the state of infrastructure in the country’s tertiary institutions is still very shabby, and mostly run down ”The committee found out that the Fund did not receive or spend N1 trillion between 2011 and 2015. The actual funds collected amounted to N507‚090‚848‚967.87.The 2013 collection as explained earlier was not remitted to TETFund but was diverted.”
On recommendation, the committee said approval for allocation and disbursement of fund belonging to TETFund is vested entirely in the Executive Arm of Government, the Board of Trustees, the Minister, and Mr. President, to the exclusion of National Assembly against the democratic practices of checks and balances which makes for proper accountability. Thus, to prevent future diversion, misallocation and or any tendency inimical to the TETFund, the Committee recommends as follows:
That in addition to the approval of Mr. President, the approval of National Assembly should be included in the process of allocation and disbursement of funds belonging to TETFund; that the appointments of the Executive Secretary and that of the chairman and members of the Board of Trustees of TETFund should be made by Mr. President and confirmed by the Senate; that the TETFund Act be amended to include (a) and (b) above; and that Senate should work to ensure the refund of all monies borrowed from the Education Tax Account as there are numerous infrastructural projects to be executed in the tertiary institutions around the country.
The recommendations were adopted. The implication is that in the days ahead, the Senate will take the initiative to pass a bill that will reform the Fund fundamentally, especially in the management and disbursement of funds.
In the words of Senator Solomon Adeola, (Lagos West) “the Senate must amend the Act setting up the Fund for the National Assembly to be involved in the budgeting, allocation of funds and even disbursement of funds.
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