Minister Receives Report of Audit Panel on New Varsities
Kuni Tyessi
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has received the report of the seven-man Audit Panel inaugurated on May 2, 2017, to audit the utilisation of the take-off grants to the 12 new universities established by the previous administration.
Speaking while receiving the report in his office, the minister said that the issues of students’ accommodation and accreditation of courses will be looked into quickly to ensure that the institutions are repositioned on the right pedestal adding that the Report will be studied and the recommendations implemented.
The Chairman of the Audit Panel, Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, briefed the minister on the Modus Operandi the panel adopted, noting that the report was in two parts- main report and individual institution’s report.
He said that at the time of the audit exercise, the 12 universities had a total students’ enrollment of 40,614 and academic staff strength of 3,756, with only about 32 per cent of the lecturers having PhDs.
On the contracts awarded, Bamiro stated that the panel observed that extant guidelines by the Public Procurement Act (PPA) were followed in most cases, while there were also a few cases of deviations.
He thanked the minister for the opportunity given to the members of the panel to serve their fatherland, and urged him to look critically into the specific observations and recommendations in the reports.