The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has endorsed the Academic Staff Union of Universities' investigation into vice chancellors' management of Tertiary Education Trust Fund allocations. He accused some chief executives of treating tertiary institutions as personal domains.
“Several of our Vice Chancellors, Rectors, and Provosts are running the institutions like an empire,” the minister stated. He urged the union to partner with the government to ensure fiduciary responsibilities are met. “We need your help in ensuring that fiduciary responsibilities are met and that they are held accountable. Every single naira that we deploy to those institutions should be used the way they are meant to be used,” Alausa emphasized.
Speaking at the public presentation of TETFund sponsored textbooks in Abuja, ASUU President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, had earlier raised concerns about weak oversight. He criticized the performance of several Centres of Excellence, noting that they were underperforming despite huge investments.
“TETFund has just added about six more Centres of Excellence to the existing 30 that are obviously not well. Most of them are performing below expectations. Hence, they must be made to account for those monies,” Piwuna said.
He revealed that the union would soon begin a detailed scrutiny of university managements. He lamented that while financial support for universities has increased, the funds are not being properly utilized. “Yes, there is plenty of money being given to the universities in recent years. Sadly, many of them have not utilised it effectively. While some of them have mismanaged it, others have used them for different purposes than what they were meant for,” he remarked.
Piwuna added that some institutions rely on fresh disbursements rather than accounting for previous allocations. “They come back because they know that TETFund will make another disbursement to the institutions the following year. I think there should be more scrutiny about what’s been going on with TETFund interventions in the universities, especially in the Centres of Excellence,” he concluded.
