The Oyo State Government has refuted claims that the state has not accessed N715 million counterpart funds for Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) for year 2020 Intervention Projects.
The Executive Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr Nureni Adeniran, in a statement in Ibadan affirmed that the state had paid counterpart funds for 2020 and 2021 to UBEC.
The chairman was reacting to allegations that the state government had failed to pay its counterpart fund to UBEC in order to access the grant for the intervention projects.
He said the responsive administration of Gov. Seyi Makinde had been faithful to the release of funds for the basic education sub-sector, to tackle the growing number of children in the state’s primary schools.
Adeniran maintained that the federal agency essentially was in receipt of the counterpart grant paid by the state government for 2020 and 2021 respectively.
“We equally have evidence of the payment and lodgment of the money.
“Oyo state does not belong to the categories of states that failed to pay counterpart funds to access UBEC matching grants as being erroneously peddled by some bloggers,” he said.
Adeniran stressed that the federal government agency had done due diligence, after receipt of the counterpart funds and the Action Plans for the projects.
He also maintained that UBEC had sent its team of experts to carry out verification exercises on all the proposed construction and renovation as well as the school furniture and boreholes to be sunk.
“They have completed the exercise and submitted their report. There is no doubt that the matching grants will be released to the state any moment from now because UBEC is at the final stage of the exercise,” he said.
According to him, UBEC grants were recurring annual federal educational grants to state governments which can be accessed after payment of specified matching counterpart funds.
“In spite of the huge amounts normally required as a counterpart fund, the Oyo State Government under Gov. Seyi Makinde has not failed in releasing its part of the funds,” Adeniran said.
He advised journalists and online bloggers to clarify stories from the right quarters before misleading the public, saying the state government’s claims can be confirmed from the UBEC office, Abuja.
“Therefore, it is misinformation on the part of anybody to say that Oyo State failed to pay the counterpart fund.
“That statement amounts to nothing but absolute falsehood.
“The author of such news should have done a thorough check of their facts from the most credible source, which is UBEC and verified all the processes earlier stated above as having taken place,” Adeniran said. (NAN)
