Unclaimed N500b funds were abandoned in the House of Representatives TETFUND Committee

The House of Representatives Committee on TETFUND and other services has disclosed that more than five hundred billion naira allocated to various beneficiary institutions remain unclaimed from the fund.

This disclosure was made by the Chairman of the Committee, Miriam Odinakachukwu Onuoha, when she led the lawmakers on a courtesy call on Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, in Umuahia.

Onuoha explained that the House of Representatives had established a separate Standing Committee on TETFUND to ensure better accountability and judicious utilization of the released amounts.

She said the House had relaxed some of the strict conditions that led to the delay, giving the committee an opportunity to speak with beneficiary institutions.

“The Committee paid a courtesy visit and verification visit to TETFUND on 30/5/2024 and found that the unused funds were over 500 billion allocated to the beneficiary higher education institutions and we investigated further and found that it There were deviations.” Reasons for this stalemate and the accumulation of funds.

Onuoha said they were consulting with affected states and institutions to find out the reasons for the accumulation.

She noted that Abia was one of the states where unutilized TETFUND funds for tertiary education had accumulated, but promised that her committee would work with the Abia State government and tertiary institutions to ensure that the State receives the correct share of the TETFUND intervention.

In his response to the committee, Governor Alex Otti said his administration would do everything possible to recover unbudgeted funds from Abia State, saying the money was needed to repair the ruins in the education sector in the state.

Otti said his drive to bring education in the state to an acceptable standard has led his administration to allocate 20% of the 2024 Abia budget for education alone.