THE Executive Secretary of National Commission for Colleges of Education, Professor Bappa-Aliyu Muhammadu on Monday said the Commission and the 21 Federal Colleges of Education under it have been faced with major problems of non-release of funds and shortfalls in yearly allocations.
He made this known in his brief presented to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) led by its Chairman, Senator Jubrin Barau, on oversight visit to the Commission.
Muhammadu said the commission is financially handicap as a result of inadequate budgetary provision as well as delay in releases, which have hampered most of the activities of the commission.
He particularly listed shortfall in capital budget, personnel and overhead cost, which have invariably affected payment of salaries, accreditation exercise, researches and mentoring among others.
He said: “For instance, the unreleased fund for the Commission’s accreditation exercise to the various Colleges of Education in the country for the year 2016 is N94,866,099.00.
“It is important for the Senate Committee to note that the commission is having a shortfall in personnel cost for the year 2016. This was made known to the committee at 2016 budget defence.
“The Commission was directed to present its actual personnel cost to your distinguished committee, which was complied with. The actual figure was also forwarded to the Budget Office of the Federation prior to the passage of the budget.
“However, the approved appropriation did not reflect the adjustment for the shortfall. The actual personnel cost of the Commission is N601,132,396.00 which was the same amount released to the Commission in 2014 and 2015 financial year.
“In 2016, the sum of N562,104,690.00 was appropriated to the Commission; hence, there is a shortfall of N39,027,706.00 in the personnel cost,” he stated.
While stressing that the commission was committed to ensuring the quality of teachers produced from colleges of education and National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Muhammadu appealed to the Senate Committee to ensure that funds were made available to the Commission for execution of its mandate.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and(TETFund), Senator Jubrin Barau, said the committee was on oversight visit to the commission in order to ascertain the level of implementation of the 2016 budget and what the challenges of the commission are.