The House of Representatives, through its Committee on TETFund and Other Services, is pushing for far-reaching amendments to the TETFund Act, 2011.
The proposed amendments, 12 of which have already passed the First Reading in the House, aim at preserving the agency and strengthening its autonomy to allow the seamless discharge of its statutory responsibilities.
Leading the charge is the House Committee Chairman on TETFund, Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha, who, on Friday, received memoranda from beneficiary institutions and other stakeholders.
In her opening remarks, Onuoha disclosed that the committee received over 30 submissions from key stakeholders, mainly representatives of beneficiary institutions, including academic and non-academic unions in the higher institutions.
Some of the submissions are seeking the committee’s intervention to save TETFund from being systematically legislated out of existence when the envisaged Tax Reform Act eventually comes on stream.
Addressing the gathering, Hon. Onuoha stressed the need for transparency and accountability in the management of funds released to the various institutions by TETFund for infrastructure projects, saying, “To whom much is given, much is expected.”
The committee chairman also stressed the need for monitoring to ensure that projects are not abandoned, adding that the House would not hesitate to name and shame errant contractors and consultants henceforth.
Citing Sections 88 and 89 of the constitution, Onuoha described TETFund as the life-wire of higher institutions in the country, saying that the Reps would adopt the stick-and-carrot approach to ensure compliance by beneficiary institutions.
In his contribution, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, observed that some Vice Chancellors and Provosts of Institutions spend about 30 to 40 per cent of project funds from TETFund on visits to the various supervisory or oversight institutions for one reason or another.
Echono said expenses on such official visits to the National University Commission (NUC), National Assembly, Office of the Auditor General for the Federation, and TETFund head office, among others, constitute a drain on project funds of the affected institutions.
On the amendment to the TEFFund Act, virtually all the stakeholders identified the provision in the Act relating to the role of the Auditor General of the Federation as a major obstacle to service delivery on TETFund projects.
According to them, the relevant officials of beneficiary institutions are made to spend weeks, even months, waiting for clearance from the office of the Auditor General before they can access funds or pay for projects already executed.
Consequently, they want the proposed amendment to cut the Auditor General off the chain, with the role transferred to the National Assembly and the Board of Trustees (BoT) of TETFund, who they say are better positioned for the role.
Similarly, stakeholders want Section 59(3) of the Tax Reform Bill expunged, describing it as a potential threat to the continuing existence of TETFund when the Tax Reform Act eventually comes on stream.
The stakeholders described TETFund as the most successful and dependable intervention fund in the funding of higher institutions, warning that killing it or legislating it out of existence might lead to the collapse of public-owned tertiary institutions in the country.
According to them, virtually every public higher institution in Nigeria depends on TETFund as the most reliable source of funding their infrastructure projects and everything must be done to ensure the survival and continuity of the Fund.
However, many stakeholders disagreed with a clause in the proposed amendment requiring each of the 36 states to contribute N500 million within three years to TETFund, arguing that the states are not equally endowed, resource-wise.
There were suggestions also for a review of the existing TETFund sharing formula of 50: 25: 20; to 40: 30: 30, with respect to universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, respectively, with a call on the leadership of the various institutions to “stop poaching TETFund funds.”
The committee chair, Onouha, urged the stakeholders to articulate their positions relating to the amendment to the Tax Reform Bill and submit their memoranda to her office for onward transmission to the Senate and Reps Committee on Finance without delay.
Participants at the hearing were drawn from ASUU, NCCE, the Committee of Vice Chancellors, Provosts of Colleges of Education, ASUP, NUC, TETFund, NANS, NBTE, the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, and Ministry of Education, among many others.
