The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan chapter, has set up a monitoring committee to ensure that contractors engaged by the institution follow the contract model.
The chapter’s Chairman, Dr Deji Omole, said in a statement on Sunday in Ibadan that the setting up of the committee followed a resolution of the congress.
According to him, the union would not fold its arms and pretend that all was well in the usage of the funds fought for by the union.
He also lamented the quality of work being carried out by some contractors engaged under the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) projects of the university, according to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.
He said some buildings constructed in Faculties of Education and in the Department of Statistics by some contractors in less than a year could be described as having failed the integrity test.
“This became important as UI ASUU congress members complained bitterly about the integrity of buildings being constructed in some faculties by contractors in the university,’’ he said.
Omole, who noted that the spirit of those who died in the course of ASUU struggle for intervention fund such as late Prof. Festus Iyayi, will haunt those engaging in shoddy deals with public funds.
The ASUU chairman, however , clarified that the job of the committee was to perform oversight function rather than “ witch-hunting.’’
He added that the committee would ascertain if the projects being delivered were standard and complied with the specifications.
“We need to go through the papers and see what model was specified and what has been delivered.
” We need to begin to firm up our oversight function to ensure that those that are supposed to be in jail for poor performances are not handling projects on our campuses.
“This is why we have decided to set up a committee to oversee how government funds are being administered to fund building projects in the university.
” We deserve to know because no contractor fought with us when we were struggling in getting government to increase funding in universities.
“People lost lives while we went on struggles. We noted that some projects in Statistics and Faculty of Education have failed. We shall not allow our labour to be siphoned into private pockets, ” he said.