THE House of Representatives has said it will investigate the alleged abuse of N2.3 trillion tertiary education tax by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) from 2011 to 2013.
The resolution was passed during plenary on Tuesday, July 4, after the adoption of a motion co-sponsored by Olusola Fatoba, David Fouh and Zakari Nyanpa.
The lower chamber has also established an ad hoc committee to investigate the alleged fund abuse and report back within four weeks.
According to Fatoba, the lead sponsor of the motion, the TETFund is known for numerous financial abuses in its operations, award and execution of projects.
The tertiary education tax was implemented through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act in 2011 as a unique corporate tax to offer specialised funding for higher education in Nigeria.
The funds, from a two per cent education tax paid from the assessable profit of companies registered in Nigeria, will be used to support capital projects, research and development, and other educational initiatives.
Fatoba said TETfund has received trillions of naira as generated revenue since its inception in 2011.
However, he noted that the TETFund standard of operations is porous and does not give room for proper supervision of its projects.
“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.
“These abuses, actions, inactions and infractions have resulted in the misappropriation of funds worth about N2.3 trillion.”
According to the lawmaker, corruption in the tertiary education system will continue to rise if actions are not taken to combat the situation.
He demanded that the gross abuse of funds in TETFund be investigated and death with.
Otherwise, according to him, the situation could 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 approved through a voice vote conducted by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas.
Beloved John is an investigative reporter with International Centre for Investigative Reporting.
You can reach her via: [email protected]