Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) said it was yet to recover from the effect of the N359 billion withdrawn from its account in 2013.
The Fund said it was more concerned with the fact that the money was withdrawn without a specific reason which greatly affected the funding of tertiary education system.
The Executive Secretary, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, told members of House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education led by Aminu Suleiman, who were on an oversight visit in Abuja, yesterday, that since then, it has written to several government agencies to assist it recover the money. He thanked the National Assembly members for their concerns and efforts to see that the monies were refunded.
He said N128 billion was taken out in one tranche that had nothing to do with education and the Fund had written to the Ministry of Finance requesting for assistance to recover the money.
He also explained that N10 billion meant for high impact projects in selected tertiary institutions had been mopped up from the system. He said the Fund uncovered that some of the benefiting tertiary institutions were stockpiling the allocated funds for several years without utilising it for purposes they were meant for.
He said the mopped-up funds would be re-distributed to tertiary institutions, taking all institutions in all the geo-political zones into consideration.