Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), yesterday, responded to a National Assembly inquiry over a report of the Auditor General of the Federation which alleged infractions by the Fund in the submission of its 2014- 2016 accounts.
Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, attributed the delay to the absence of a Board of Trustees over the period which slowed the signing and submission of the Fund’s accounts.
Bogoro, who spoke when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education and Services, noted that all accounts were submitted in 2016 and 2018.
He said TETFund had evidence of submission of the 2014 account on February 4, 2016, with signatures of all auditors, while his predecessor, Dr. Abdullahi Baffa, signed the documents as Executive Secretary.
“We had a lacuna of the Board of Trustees because between 2015 to 2016 there was no board, that contributed to the delay. We assure you that we would not ordinarily want to delay the audited accounts,” he said.
On the agency’s transparency, he said the accounts of 2017 were dully rendered in 2018 and signed by his predecessor, Baffa, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, while that of 2018 was submitted in December of 2019.
Bogoro said the Auditor General’s office had been undertaking performance audit and TETFund had been one of the agencies that the office audits every year.
He said the Fund also engaged the services of independent impact assessment committee to look into its activities in the past 20 years and that the report would be made public in two weeks.
Chairman of the Committee, Aminu Suleiman confirmed the submission of the fund’s accounts of 2014, 2015 and 2016 in 2018.
He, however, said apart from the 2017 account of TETFund which was submitted on time, its 2014, 2015 and 2016 accounts were submitted late, stressing that an infraction had been established.