Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has said it is absolutely necessary for every State Universal Basic Education Board(SUBEB) across the country to always follow due process in the utilisation of their funds and other matters.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, stated this in his brief remark at the executive training programme on financial management, organised by UBEC for all the chairmen of SUBEBs at the Lagos Business School, Lekki, last Thursday.
He said UBEC’s quarterly financial monitoring reports on the utilisation of the Federal Government-UBE Intervention Funds by the state and the FCT Universal Basic Education Board have necessitated the training.
According to him, the reports reveal several infractions being committed in SUBEBs, and some of these are in violation of the UBEC guidelines, accounting practices, Financial Regulations and the Procurement Act.
Bobboyi said this situation had become very disturbing, particularly when “We found that in some states, the infractions are committed without recourse to implementing the commission’s recommendations that follow every financial monitoring.”
He noted that the commission’s efforts to stamp out these practices by training the SUBEB accounting personnel did not yield the desired result so far and that forced the commission to make recommendations to its Governing Board on the type of sanctions to impose on offending boards.
He said the recommendations were later presented at the quarterly meeting of UBEC Management and SUBEB Executive Chairmen in Benin City, Edo State, in November 2021, where it was resolved that the chairmen should be trained and exposed to the relevant regulations governing financial transactions in their respective boards.
“We believe as agencies holding trust for the Nigerian people, we have a responsibility which is to account to the Nigerian public on what we are doing with the resources provided for the development of basic education in the country and so, we must be able to do things right,” Bobboyi stressed.
He, however, said he is optimistic that the training would achieve its purpose.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then