Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, challenged the Academic Staff Union of Universities education intervention fund amount to about N463b is; immediately disbursed by the TETFUND to the tertiary institutions owned by the federal and state governments.
Falana, who disclosed that the tertiary institutions did not access N250B from the amount of TETFUND from 2011-2016 narrated that the sum N213.4b is outstanding for 2017 alone.
Addressing the 20th delegates conference of Academic Staff Unions of Universities , ASUU, at The Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi State,M. Falana commended the union for the initiative which led to the enactment of the TETFUND Act in 1992.
The sum of N463b is lying fallow at the central bank of Nigeria while public Universities; Polytechnics and colleges of education and underfunded.
He said that the 78 public universities are; entitled to about 50% of the sum of N463b in the TETFUND account.
The TETFUND board to urgently review the cumbersome guidelines for accessing the fund, the lawyer called on the ASUU and other campus unions to monitor the tax collection of education tax, the disbursement and management of the intervention fund by the authorities of tertiary institutions.
He informed the ASUU leaders that, due to the failure of the staff and student unions to monitor the fund over the years not less than N250b has been criminally diverted from the TETFUND by some unscrupulous school administrators with the connivance of the former board members of the TETFUND.
Mr. Falana Advised TETFUND to stop imposing a ban on the institutions from accessing the fund because some past administrators failed to render account of the monies collected by them.
The imposing collective punishment on the innocent staff and students of such institutions; he suggested that Tertiary Education Trust Fund should submit names of such administrators to the police and; the anti-graft agencies for investigation and possible prosecution.
The governments have paid service to the funding of education without intervention of Tertiary Education Trust Fund; the public tertiary institutions would have collapsed.
As the various government have failed to make provision for the capital projects in public schools.
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