The management of Tertiary Education Trust Fund has dismissed claims of infraction in promotion examination and allegations of a cover-up in disbursements of multi-billion naira fund to beneficiary institutions published by an online medium.
Acting Director, Public Affairs of TETFund, Mr Abdulmumin Oniyangi, while reacting to the said publications by Sahara Reporters, said the allegations were false and misleading, and allegedly sponsored by some aggrieved staff to denigrate an agency he said has been widely acclaimed by various stakeholders as a model.
He said the management was particularly miffed at the allegation of a cover-up of disbursements by the Fund and that intervention allocations to colleges of education, polytechnics and universities were last released in 2013.
Oniyangi said every right-thinking person would know that there was no way the Fund could withhold disbursement of statutory allocations to Institutions for so long and the staff unions of such institutions, particularly Academic Staff Union Universities (ASUU) has not protested or agitated for the release of the funds.
In a statement made available to newsmen on Sunday, he said, “The attention of the Management of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has been drawn to two publications issued by Sahara Reporters titled “Workers of Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund Agency Alleged Corruption, Infraction in Promotion Examinations” published on November 3, 2021, and “How Nigeria’s Education Fund, TETFund Covered Up Disbursements of Multi-Billion Naira Fund, Allocations from 2013 published on November 11, 2021.
“While the Management of TETFund chose not to respond to the first publication because it was masterminded in bad faith by a few staff of the Fund who did not meet the minimum mark prescribed for the examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), it has become imperative to set the records straight in view of the second publication which we perceive is also sponsored by the staff to deliberately discredit the management of the Fund and mislead our stakeholders and the public at large.
“On the conduct of promotion examinations by the Fund, we wish to state that in line with best practices, independent examination bodies such as the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) and JAMB have over the years been engaged by the Fund to ensure transparency and non-interference in the process.
“For the 2021 senior staff promotion examination conducted by the Fund, ASCON was originally engaged to offer refresher courses and conduct examinations for participants. However, there were widespread complaints and petitions regarding the outcome of the examination addressed not only to the Fund but the Federal Ministry of Education, which is the Fund’s supervisory ministry.
“We, therefore, wish to state categorically that the decision to conduct a fresh examination organized by JAMB was taken after the review and directive issued by the Federal Ministry of Education and not for reasons perceived by the sponsors of the publication.
“Additionally, the setting of higher minimum criteria for the examination does not in any way contravene the provisions of the Public Service Rules which only recommend minimum standards,” TETFund spokesperson said.
On the second publication which alleges cover-up of disbursements by the Fund and that intervention allocations to colleges of education, polytechnics and universities were last released in 2013, Oniyangi said, “We wish to state emphatically that nothing could be farther from the truth”.
He disclosed that details of Reconciled Projects and funds allocated for staff development programmes such as TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff, Teaching Practice, and Conference Attendance for all beneficiary institutions across the six geo-political zones as of 30th June 2020 could be found on the Fund’s website under Publications – PI Reconciled Projects/AST&D Projects.
He said: “It would be absurd to imagine that the allegation of cover-up was true and there were no agitations by heads of the various public tertiary institutions in the country, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which agitated for the creation of the Fund, other unions in our beneficiary institutions and indeed our various stakeholders.
“To demonstrate his commitment to transparency and accountability, you would recall that the Executive Secretary in 2019 set up an independent Technical Assessment Committee on Impact Assessment (TACIA) to objectively examine the activities of the Fund from 1999 to 2019, including funds received by the Fund, disbursements, and impact of the Fund’s intervention among others.
“The Fund has always made it a duty to regularly keep the public abreast of its activities in various platforms and only recently organized a Taxpayers’ Forum in Lagos to give an account of funds received and allocated. It shall continue to strive to utilize even more diverse platforms for the dissemination of information.
“While Management respects the viewpoints and genuine interests of its stakeholders including the press, it is important that we endeavour to encourage and not denigrate a brand that is widely acclaimed by various stakeholders as a model,” he stated.
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