Reps query Education Trust Fund

Nnamdi Felix / Abuja

The House of Representatives committee on education on Wednesday, queried the management of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund over non disclosure of internally generated revenue that accrued to the agency and demanded full disclosure of the amount generated by agency, which allegedly runs into billions of Naira.

The Committee also faulted the nearly 100 per cent increase in the personnel cost from N266 million in 2011 to N404 million in 2012.

The query was served on the management of the agency during the Committee’s oversight visit to the agency in Abuja on Wednesday. The Committee expressed displeasure when it discovered that the agency failed to disclose the capital components of its statutory allocation and internally generated revenue.

Chairman of the committee, Rose Okoh, subsequently directed the agency to furnish them with estimate of income acruing to the agency from investment of the non statutory funds in Treasury Bills and Bonds before the presentation and defence of the 2013 appropriation Act.

Acting Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Mallam Aliyu Naiya, told the legislators that a total of N11 billion was realized as profit from the Treasury Bills and Bonds in 2011, but was used on the agency’s intervention projects. He also disclosed that about 155 staff were recruited between 2011 and 2012, accounting for the increase in the personnel cost of the agency.