Senate probes N200b fund

The Senate on Wednesday invited the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Prof. Suleiman Bogoro over an alleged diversion of N200 billion Education Tax collected by the fund.

The invitation followed a motion sponsored by Sen. Abdullahi Sabi (APC- Niger North) at its plenary session in Abuja on Wednesday.

Bogoro is expected to brief the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions on the alleged diversion and other irregularities at TETFund.

In moving the motion, Sabi said the board also approved and organized a workshop and pre-retreat in the United States of America and Kenya in 2014-2015 without recourse to the guidelines of the TETFund Act.

“A whopping sum of about N500 million was budgeted for advertising and media in TETFund’s 2015 budget”, he said.

Sabi added that the vote contravened the rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of tertiary education in Nigeria in accordance with Section 3(1) of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Establishment, etc) Act 2011.

The senator stated that after spending nearly N1trillion between 2011 and 2015, “the state of infrastructure in tertiary institutions was still shabby, dilapidated and mostly run down.”

Following the resolution to probe TETFUND, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki directed the Committee on Tertiary Institutions to report back to the Senate within a month.

The probe is to cover the diversion of the tax collected between 2012 and 2013 and used for projects not recognised in or permitted under the TETFund establishment Act, 2011.

The committee is also to look into an alleged misappropriation of funds from 2011 to 2015.

“I want the Committee to do a thorough job and within a month report to the Senate so that we get a clearer picture of the situation”, Saraki said.

The Senate adjourned plenary to Thursday