Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan
As crises continue to rock Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, the two owner state governments, Oyo and Osun, have restated their earlier position, demanding an external forensic audit of the institution.
Receiving the state executives of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) in Ibadan over the weekend, the Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, noted that part of the recommendations of the visitation panel led by a renowned lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun, was that the accounts of the school and its workforce must be audited.
He said this would defuse tension and open a lasting solution to the recurring crises that had been affecting the specialized university.
Prof. Olowofela pointed out that the step has been justified based on the visitation panel’s report, detecting 97 different bank accounts in almost all the commercial banks in the country being operated as against the directive of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy specifically put in place to promote transparency.
The report also revealed that the majority of the banks have closed shop due to restructuring, merger or outright delisting by the Central Bank of Nigeria just as a total sum of N13.626 Billion subventions, excluding Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) was released to the institution by Oyo and Osun state governments between 2011-2016.
Similarly, the education commissioner succinctly analyzed as follows: “The subventions released to LAUTECH between 2011-2016 goes thus; Oyo state released 8,473,361,702.25, and Osun state contributed 5,153,047,345.74, totaling N13.626 Billion.
“Also, the students population is as follows: Undergraduate (Regular) – 27,457. Undergraduate (Part time ), – 1514, Postgraduate (Regular) – 2857, Postgraduate (Part-Time) 3054, Open Distance Learning (ODL) 655, total- 35,507 Students. Why is it difficult for LAUTECH to survive, since institutions with less students’ population are surviving?”.
“We must ascertain whether the government needs to jerk up the subvention or whether government needs to remove the subvention completely.”
