The Public Account Committee, PAC, of the House of Representatives on Tuesday quizzed the Management of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Tetfund over the disbursement of the sum of N250 billion placed under the subhead ‘Grant’ as contained in its Audited Financial Report for the year ended 31st December 2019 based on the Audit query by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
The management of the agency who was led by its Director of Finance and Administration, Dr Gloria Olotu to the Investgative hearing organized to consider the queries raised on its annual report by the Office of the Auditor General of the federation disclosed that the new Executive Secretary, Arc.Sonny S.T. Echono was unavailable to attend the session due to unforeseen circumstances.
Speaking, the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Busayo Oluwole Oke frowned at the absence of the New Executive Secretary for not honouring the invitation of the parliament, saying that the immediate past Executive Secretary of the Agency appeared before it only once and warned that the absenteeism would no longer be tolerated.
He stated that the agency like other MDAs was being summoned in the spirit of fair hearing to defend itself over the queries raised against it by the Office of the Auditor General of the federation.
He also pointed out that the agency would have to prove beyond reasonable doubt why it should not be sanctioned for unremitted taxes, other deductions and undisclosed reserves totalling N345.02 million within the period under review.
He added that the agency would have to address squarely the issue of the irregularities in the agency’s disclosure of Aids and Grants as contained in the AuGF’s report totalling another N8 billion naira.
Responding, Tetfund’s Director of Finance, Dr. Gloria Olotu explained that what appeared as non remittance of taxes and other deductions was due to the fact that such deductions were usually made in the month of December of every year and remitted in January of the following year.
She added that the N250 billion classified as Grant in the audit query was wrong as the amount represented part of the non-statutory operating funds of the agency raised from the 5% administrative cost of its Tertfund Act which allows it to expend from the Education Tax.
She agreed that, hitherto, the agency was having issues of properly classifying different funds available to it under correct sub-heads, but that the problem had been solved over time.
The Committee chairman, however, insisted on relevant documents to backup her claims, demanding among others, terfund budgets for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020, its projected revenue for the same period as well as corroboration from the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS that such tax deductions were truly made and paid into government coffers.
Rep Oke also demanded for the new Executive Secretary of tetfund to appear before the Committee, after he must have been fully briefed by the management staff of the Agency as requested by the representative of the Agency.
He Consequently directed the Agency to appear the Committee by next week Tuesday for further questioning.
