OsunVarsity Refutes Uncompleted TETFund Project Claim

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

Osun State University has refuted a statement credited to the Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate, Dr. Lere Oyewumi, alleging that the university has an uncompleted project funded through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund since 2010 on the Ikire Campus.

The university’s rebuttal was contained in a statement made available to journalists yesterday by the university’s Public Relations Officer, Ademola Adesoji.

The statement credited to the Senate Deputy Minority Leader was published at the weekend.

Highlights of the statement read: “The attention of the university has been drawn to a story published in The Punch on September 1, 2023, which claimed that there was a contract awarded in 2010 by TETFund for the construction of a lecture theatre on Ikire Campus but remains uncompleted till now.”

The statement issued by Adesoji added: “Osun State University started accessing TETFund interventions in 2012; therefore, the claim that a building project started in 2010 was misleading and untrue. The only project yet to be completed on Ikire Campus started in June 2021, and the university now has the TETFUND support to complete the job. Even though the pace of work on the construction might have been slow, the university is ensuring very close supervision and monitoring of the contractor to ensure the completion and delivery of the project within specified adjusted timelines.

“The Senate Deputy Minority Leader visited our College of Humanities and Culture, Ikire Campus on August 31, 2023, and expressed satisfaction with the infrastructural development that we have been able to achieve through our internally generated revenue, while also lauding our quality of academic staff. We only award infrastructural projects to contractors with a track record of timely delivery, and they work under our strict supervision.

“It should be recalled that TETFund and other regulatory agencies regularly send technical inspectors to our campuses for monitoring and evaluation. We are proud to state that the inspection reports and have always commended the university’s management for good jobs on project delivery.

“The university has over the years been able to secure funding from TETFUND for faculty buildings, lecture theatres, as well as other normal, special, and high-impact interventions of the Fund. The last and most recent of these is the iconic Senate Building project being funded by TETFund, after the Federal Executive Council’s approval earlier this year. All of these would not have been possible if our records to deliver on projects were tainted.”

It added: “Also, note that the university remains one of the few universities to have been cleared in the recently conducted audit of tertiary institutions in the country. We are renowned for our ‘by the book’ approach to management, and we remain committed to transparency and accountability that have earned us an enviable reputation among our peers.”