By Gloria Emmanuel The Minister of Education Ibrahim Shekarau, Thursday, warned Vice Chancellors of public Universities in the country against misappropriation of the N1.3trillion NEEDS Assessment Intervention fund.
He gave the warning at the opening of a one-day sensitization retreat on the Implementation of NEEDs Assessment Intervention in Nigerian Public Universities, in Abuja.
According to the minister, “Vice Chancellor must be prudent and transparent in the utilisation of the fund as they would be called to account.
“In the next few years the Federal Government expects a reasonable transformation on the infrastructures in our public institutions.
“The fund allocated by the Federal government is limited hence you must be prudent in spending and ensure value for money. Vice Chancellors should be up and doing and this administration would not tolerate any corrupt practices from anybody.
“Another thing the governing council of the institutions must follow is the master plan and the facilities in place must comply with the master plan.
“I want to sound a note of warning; on no account should the universities invest the intervention fund to earn interest. There must be no delay in meeting obligations to contractors, suppliers and staff undergoing training.
“All beneficiaries are expected to operate only a single dedicated account to which fund released by the implementation committee is sent to and from where the universities meet their financial obligations. Intervention fund cannot be paid into any other account, any change of account must be brought to the attention of committee and approval must be obtained from the committee”, the Minister said.
Speaking further, the minister stressed that, “Sometime last year the government and unions of tertiary institutions agreed to release N1.3 trillion, to public universities, to address the most basic problems in our universities especially in the areas of infrastructure, staff development and training.
“And we thought we should bring all the Vice Chancellors and all their management staff concerning the management of fund injected in their hands and this fund must be prudently utilised and there is an implementation committee that has already in place chaired by me, that would be monitoring every Naira and kobo released to you. We would not spare any head of any institution that violate the rules and regulations on this fund”.
According to him, “The Committee made far-reaching 1.3 trillion recommendations which were considered and adopted by both the Federal Executive Council and the National Economic Council. It is at the backdrop of this that the Federal Government inaugurated the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) to oversee the administration of this intervention, in collaboration with the universities.
“The Federal Government is making available the sum of 1.3 trillion naira to be disbursed as follows: 2013-N200 billion, 2014 N220 billion; 2015-N220 billion,
2016-N220 billion, 2017-N220 billion; 2018-N220 billion.
“I wish to remind you that the Honourable Minister of Education is the Approving Authority for the disbursement of funds allocated by the IMC, while the Accounting Officers are the Vice Chancellors of the respective Universities, and not the state governors or the pro-chancellors.
“This is important because it refers to accountability for tax payers’ funds disbursed, and matters could arise from the authorities that oversee or audit Government expenditure.
“To all the participants present here, especially the State Universities, you are expected to comply with the Federal Government Due Process in all your procurement process, as contained in the Public Procurement Act 2007.
“The responsibility for Due Process for works, goods and services rests with the procurement entities. The Federal Universities are already aware of the requirements, under the Public Procurement Act.
“All Vice Chancellors are enjoined to ensure that the provision for staff training should ameliorate the deficiency observed in the staff mix, and should not be expended on conferences or seminars of professional associations etc. The Universities should know that they should nominate only fresh candidates for postgraduate studies within and outside Nigeria”.
