CONTROVERSY: Questions trail execution of multi-billion naira TETFUND projects in public varsities (Part 1)

There are disturbing signals about how public universities are managing or mismanaging huge sums of money allocated to them annually to execute Tertiary Institution Trust Fund (TETFUND) projects. Investigation revealed that many of the institutions executing the projects engage in questionable practices. INNOCENT DURU, who visited some federal universities in the Southwest, reports.

EARLY this year, the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, submitted the institution’s 2015-2018 Budget Performance and 2019 Proposed Budget Reports to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND.

On page 95 of the document, the institution listed the construction of Pharmacy Building Phase 2 as part of the scheduled TETFUND projects for January-December, 2015. The contract was awarded for the sum of N16,598,644.69, as indicated in the document. A copy of the document, dated March 20, 2019, was obtained by our correspondent.

Investigation, however, revealed that the building in question had been constructed and commissioned before the scheduled execution period. The inscription on the building, which reads: ‘Pharmacy Building Phase II, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife, Nigeria,’ indicated that it was officially commissioned by the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Prof. Rowland Ndoma-Egba, on Monday, December 8, 2014.

Students and lecturers in the faculty, who spoke with our correspondent, were shocked that the completed and commissioned project was included in the 2015 schedule. They also told our correspondent that aside the building, there is no other one designated as Pharmacy Building Phase II in the institution.

A student of the institution, who pleaded anonymity, said: “This is the only Pharmacy Building Phase II that we have. It was built and commissioned long ago. I have spent more than three years here, and I met the building already completed when I was admitted. I don’t know of any other Pharmacy Building II. Something is definitely amiss.”

Another project whose inclusion in the schedule of merged TETFUND project for January-December, 2015, is generating controversy is the construction of academic lecture rooms and offices for the institution’s Faculty of Administration.

A project signpost erected close to the building revealed that it was done during the year 2009-2012 merged intervention projects. Curiously, the names of the contractor, architect, structural engineer, mechanical engineer and quantity surveyor listed on the signpost were also included in the 2015 schedule.

On pages 96 and 97 of the document, the institution listed the following as part of the budget for the building construction in the 2015 schedule:

(I) Construction of academic lecture rooms and offices of Faculty of Admin (Structural Engr Services) awarded for N1,499,149.67, as indicated in the document.

II) Construction of academic lecture rooms and offices of the Faculty of Admin awarded in the document for the sum of N2,004,699.56.
III) Construction of academic lecture rooms and offices of the Faculty of Admin (Arch. Consultancy) awarded in the document for N3,021,808.41.

IV) Construction of academic lecture rooms and offices of Faculty of Admin (Q/S Consultancy) awarded in the document for the sum of N1,473,890.60.
(V) Construction of academic lecture rooms and offices of Faculty of Admin (Q/S Consultancy) awarded in the document for N21,160,433.49.

(VI) Construction of academic lecture rooms and offices of the Faculty of Admin awarded in the document for the sum of N49,714,323.66.

But students and officials of the faculty who spoke with our correspondent expressed surprise at the development.

A member of the staff, who spoke with our correspondent in confidence, said: “This is scandalous. This is the building you are talking about. As far as I know, there is no Faculty of Admin building anywhere else.

“How can the management include a project that had long been completed in the 2015 schedule?.”

Added to the list of inexplicable projects in the 2015 schedule is the completion of a workshop complex for the Entrepreneurship Centre, which incidentally was also part of the 2009 -2012 merged projects.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/controversy-questions-trail-execution-of-multi-billion-naira-tetfund-projects-in-public-varsities-part-1/