Amid reports of allegations of misappropriation and award of contract amounting to N7.6 billion by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the Executive Secretary of the Fund, Arc. Sonny Echono has described such reports as totally untrue, stating that the introduction of some sweeping reforms at the Fund has not gone down well with some cartels.
The Executive Secretary gave insights into the development while answering questions from journalists at the sidelines of the Second Registrars’ Workshop and 75th Business Meeting of Association of Registrars of Nigerian Universities (ARNU) held in Abuja in April.
Arc. Echono explained that since his assumption of office at the Fund, sweeping reforms geared towards repositioning the agency for better service delivery and cutting of waste have been embarked upon with adherence to due process.
“When I was asked to come here, I was given a mandate and I have introduced reforms, made very powerful enemies and you can see some bits of that. It shows that we have done a quick deal in reforming our systems to the acknowledgement of all our stakeholders.
“The initial impression that TETFund is a cesspool of corruption was an exaggerated one. I can confirm that from my experience. It was an exaggeration of what was happening.
“There were some types of cartels that were in charge of TETFund projects, and they also felt that all manners of political leaders could come to TETFund, collect what they call special intervention. There was no form of system or processes in place. I invited ICPC to come and inspect the systems and they did. They have come back for the second time,” he said.
Speaking on the engagement of Fides Et Ratio Academy and Pole Global Marketing for capacity-building courses and learning management systems, the TETFund boss affirmed that there were no irregularities in the entire process as erroneously reported by some media outfits.
“We use Memorandum of Understandings (MoUS) generally for training programmes, and I inherited about nine of them when I resumed office. What we had (with the company) was an MoU, not a contract. However, we follow due process while awarding contracts and we have four projects that are going to the Federal Executive Council,” he stated.
He noted that the Fund has in the past signed a number of MoUs and this has translated into training of more lecturers, expansion of ICT infrastructure in many Beneficiary Institutions across Nigeria, among others.
