The House of Representatives has taken a significant step to probe the alleged mismanagement of N2.3 trillion in tertiary education tax by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) between 2011 and 2013.
During the plenary session on Tuesday, a resolution was passed to commence the investigation following the joint sponsorship of a motion by Olusola Fatoba, David Fouh, and Zakari Nyanpa.
Fatoba, the main sponsor of the motion, highlighted that since its establishment in 2011, TETFund has generated substantial revenue amounting to trillions of naira.
However, he expressed concerns regarding the fund's reputation for financial irregularities, including questionable financial practices, contract awards, and project executions.
“The standard operating procedure within the fund is porous and does not create a platform for proper supervision of projects domiciled with tertiary institutions, with disbursements of funds happening without tracking and payments being made despite the failure of contractors to achieve milestones required for such payments,” he said.
“These abuses, actions, inactions and infractions have resulted in the misappropriation of funds and unjust enrichment of funds worth about N2.3 trillion.”
The lawmaker said if urgent steps were not taken to investigate the allegations, the “decay of the tertiary education system” will continue to increase”.
This, he said would continue to lead to “strikes by academic workers, substandard institutions, lack of faith in the system, migration of talented youths and total collapse of the education system arising from gross abuse of laudable special intervention programmes and aspiration of the president to provide opportunities to young people through quality tertiary education”.
The motion was adopted when it was put to a voice vote by Tajudeen Abbas, the speaker.
The house set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the allegations and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.
