The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has received the report of the Audit Panel set up to audit the utilisation of the take-off grants given to 12 new universities established by the previous administration. A statement signed by Chinenye Ihueoma, Director, Press and Public Relations of the Ministry, in Abuja on Tuesday, said the seven-man panel was inaugurated on May 2, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
Adamu, while receiving the report, commended members of the panel for their dedication and diligence in completing the task within a short period.
The minister said that the issues of students’ accommodation and accreditation of courses would be quickly looked into to ensure that the institutions were put on the right pedestal.
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Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, Chairman of the panel, briefed the minister on the modus operandi the panel adopted, noting that the report was included main and individual institutions reports.
” At the time of the audit exercise, the 12 universities had a total students’ enrolment of 40,614 and academic staff strength of 3,756, with only about 32 per cent of the lecturers holding PhD degrees.”
Bamiro said that the panel observed that extant guidelines of the Public Procurement Act (PPA) were followed in most cases, with only 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.
