The House of Representatives has set up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the alleged abuse of N2.3 trillion generated from the Tertiary Education Tax by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund from 2011 to 2013.
This was sequel to a motion by a member, Olusola Fatoba, at plenary.
Mr Fatoba said in 2011, the Education Tax Act was repealed and Enacted Tertiary Education Trust Fund Establishment Act in 2021, the Finance Act 2021, increased the applicable Tertiary Education Tax rate from 2% to 2.5%.
According to him, since the establishment of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund in 2011, the Fund has earned trillions of Naira as revenue generated, saying however, the Fund is reputed for numerous financial abuses in its operations, award of contracts and execution of projects.
The lawmaker expressed concern that the abuses, actions, inactions and infractions have resulted in the misappropriation of funds and unjust enrichment worth about N2.3 Trillion.
He warned that if urgent steps were not taken to investigate the allegations, the decay of the Tertiary Education System would continue to rise, resulting in more strike actions, substandard institutions, lack of faith in the system, migration of talented youths, and complete collapse of the Education System.
These, he said, arise from gross abuse of “laudable special intervention Programmes and aspirations of the President, aimed at providing opportunities to young people through quality tertiary education”.
Adopting the motion, the House tasked the ad hoc committee to probe and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.
RN
