Abuja – Hamid Boboyi, the new Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) on Wednesday gave vivid account on how some State Governments frustrate ongoing efforts by Federal Government to promote education across the country.
Boboyi disclosed this during the 2015 budget performance and 2016 budget implementation of the UBEC held at the instance of the House Committees on Basic Education chaired by Mohammed Zakari (Kwara State).
The lawmakers who expressed concern over the inadequate educational infrastructure, directed the Commission to ensure provision of classrooms for a public school in Karshi area of Nasarawa state where hundreds of pupils study under Mango trees.
Speaking on the budget performance for the period under review, the UBEC accounting officer, expressed concern over the high-handedness of some State Governors who warehouse the intervention funds disbursed by the Commission in fixed account.
The new UBEC chairman, who declined to mention the affected Governors, further briefed the committee on efforts made so far to address various challenges on girl child education and Almajiri education programmes.
Boboyi who explained that about 1.8 million Almajiri who were out of schools in the North East region are being given priority, adding that over half of the 10 million children who are out of school live in the Northern part of the country.
Speaking on the activities of the Commission during the period under review, UBEC solicited for reduction in matching grant to 25% for State to be able to access the funds adding that most states are waiting till end of the year to access the fund.
On the financial status of the commission, he explained that the sum of N300 million in-balance was captured in the hand over note presented to him by his predecessor, adding that “there are a lot of contracts that were give under the matching grant with outstanding liabilities of over N800 million.
He said: “We get our funding based on what was appropriated. If the appropriation is N77 billion, we get N6 billion every month and in 1st quarter, we would have gotten N18 billion.”
The UBEC helmsman specifically expressed concern over the peculiarity of Ekiti state where the funds allocated for education development get stocked in the banks whenever the incumbent Governor loses election, hence expedient for the Commission to recall the fund.
Speaking further on the funds allocated to address education imbalances, Boboyi explained that the funds was aimed at addressing girl child education problems across the country but noted that Anambra State was not included while about 15 schools were cited in Bayelsa state.
While responding to questions on the level of projects implemented for the Almajiri school Programme, the UBEC Chief observed that most of these projects are not completed while several are yet to be equipped.
According to him, some States have submitted reports of the projects implemented so far, while Ekiti, Benue and Sokoto got the release of their first allocations for the year last week.
To this end, Mohammed Zakari, chairman of the Basic Education directed the UBE Executive Secretary to provide details of the amounts spent so far on various contracts and projects awarded so far, the level of completion on State by State basis by Friday.
Other lawmakers who expressed concerns over the implementation of the Commissions projects and programmes frowned at the exclusion of various Constituency projects for Bayelsa, Edo, Gombe and others which were domiciled in the Commission Appropriations.
The Committee also demanded for details of projects and contracts awarded between 2012 and 2016.
They also requested for location of various projects Including e-library and others across the country.
They however queried the spending of funds as at March 2016 ahead of the approval of the 2016 Appropriations Act which was passed in May 2016.
The lawmakers also queried the differential between the appropriated fund for UBE monitoring/Programme fund and the expended funds in the report submitted to the Committee.
Some lawmakers from the North East also requested for plans by the Commission to intervene in the reconstruction of schools burnt during the Boko Haram insurgency.
While ruling, Mohammed directed the Commission to submit details of Internally Generated Revenue between January to September 2016 and extent of financial commitment of donor agencies received by the commission so far, as well as the nominal rolls, remuneration and grade levels.
