Nigeria’S Senate has resolved to probe the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) over unexecuted contracts.
The development was hard on the heels of a motion by Senator Jubril Barau who said contractors voted with their feet after receiving funds from TETFUND, and they failed to execute contracts accordingly.
In the midst of the outrage over the disclosure, Senate President Bukola Saraki, mandated the Committees on Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and Public Procurement begin an investigation contract awards at TETFUND.
Saraki said “I mentioned earlier that we would be focusing on corrupt practices on a weekly basis.
“We would find out if it is lack of capacity on behalf of TETFUND or why security agencies have not done anything on it.
“I recommended the two committees to work on this thoroughly because you are working on behalf of the Senate.”
Earlier Senator Barau disclosed that “In the past years, TEFUND has had to award numerous contracts for the benefit of several higher institutions across the country in keeping with the statute that established the agency.
“These contracts were meant for projects spread across various levels of tertiary institutions such as universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, etc deemed as urgently needed to improve on the quality of teaching, learning and research I the institutions.
“In spite of the good intentions of TETFUND in awarding the contracts, some contractors, who are yet to be identified allegedly collected the project monies and walked away without executing the contracts.
“We are determined that in strict compliance with the recent pronouncement of the President of the Senate towards the renewed commitment of the Senate to exposing corrupt practices in all facets of the Nigerian society and bringing culprits to justice.”
