Baffa Rejects Shabby Projects as UI Receives N6.5billion TETfund Allocation

By Paul Obi in Abuja

The University of Ibadan (UI) has received so far the sum of N6.4 billion from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) intervention fund to embark on critical infrastructural  development.

To this end , he university has also commenced the process of improving its physical infrastructure with the commissioning of six out of the 42 projects being sponsored by TETfund at the cost of about N6.5billion.

The Executive Secretary of TETfund, Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa who disclosed during the commissioning of  the Virology Department Building Phase 1, Food Research  Laboratory for Department of Food Technology, Academic block for the Institute of African Studies, lecture theatre for faculty of Science, auditorium for the faculty of Pharmacy, lecture room and academic staff offices for the faculty of Pharmacy.

Baffa commended the management of the  university of Ibadan  for the feat of remaining the number one ranked university in the country while appealing to them  work harder towards moving back to its enviable position as one of the best 50 universities in the world before now.

According to him, “UI was the meeting point where decision to establish TETfund, then as ETF was conceived by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), pointing out that the institution  cannot be found wanting in delivering of qualitative TETfund sponsored projects.”

 He frowned at the quality of finishing for the Virology department project, faculty of Science Lecture  Theatre and the Food Science Technology laboratory; and directed its  management  to recall the contractors to site and ensure that the projects were completed according to specification.

 “To call a spade with no other name, the contractors handling these projects at the University of Ibadan are not performing up to our expectation and I have already drawn the attention of the management  to try and complete these projects, especially the Faculty of Science Auditorium, the Food Science Technology Laboratories and the Virology department complex.

“These are part of the 42 projects that TETfund is financing at the University of Ibadan from 2008 to 2014, costing about N6.5billion.”

He added that the commission “has commissioned six out of these 42 projects today, and out of  these six, three of them are not really the way we want to see them and we have already taken steps to correct that. Our technical people from the fund will return to UI to follow up on the completion of these projects and the university management,  I am sure will also take the necessary steps to ensure the contractors are called back to site to do what is needful to ensure that the agreement they have signed with the university as far as the quality and the deliverable of the projects are met before we will be  able to accept these projects are completed projects, ”Baffa stressed.

 On the outstanding multibillion naira allocation to the UI which is yet to be accessed, the executive secretary explained that in line with the Performance Index Disbursement (PID) model which TETfund operates, the institution  cannot commence the drawdown of its 2015, 2016, 2017 and  about to  be released 2018 allocations unless it meets the requirements for such.

 “There are year 2015, 2016, 2017 allocations that they are yet  to draw from and we will soon release the 2018 allocation which they will not be able to  draw from until they are able to close down the 2011 to 2014  merged allocations.

 “Our interventions are such that we allocate resources but we disburse such resources when you have been able to fulfill the requirements. Part of the requirement is that you must perform, the money that was given to you previously, you must utilize them, retire them and we come to monitor the project, commission the project, and ensure you have made  judicious utilisation of the money before we can give you another one.

 “So we are waiting for the UI to complete the projects which it has started with the merged 2011 to 2014 allocations which we have given to  the university. When they finish and retire the money properly, they can then commence the drawdown of the  unassessed allocations,” Baffa stressed.