The House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnics and other Higher Technical Education has fumed over the discovery that Federal Polytechnic Ugep, Cross Rivers State, spends over N600 million on personnel and overhead costs despite having only 142 students and 154 academic and non-academic staff.
The discovery was made after a submission on budget performance and other activities by the Rector of the Polytechnic, Professor Edward N.Okey, before the committee on Monday.
As part of its ongoing oversight function, the committee had invited Federal Polytechnics and some other technical institutions from the South-South to appear.
The Committee Chairman, Fouad Kayode Laguda, and members were angered that, Federal Polytechnic Ugep also spent N38million on local travel.
The rector of the Polytechnic had in his presentation, claimed that the management also spent N20 billion take-off grant to renovate the abandoned, dilapidated structure of Ugep Community Secondary School to use as a temporary campus and put up structures on the Institute of Technology Management (ITM) which he said they have eventually taken over as their permanent site.
“Our school was established in 2021. When we went to Ugep in 2021, we were to start the school at a temporary site in the state Polytechnic called Institute of Technology and Management (ITM). But, when we got there, we could not get the state polytechnic to start the school.
“So, the first challenge we had was to identify a temporary site to start the school to take off. That took us more than a year because Ugep is a village. It’s a big town, but it’s a local town. To get a school for us to start was not an easy task.
“When we started, we had 16 students, but this year, we have admitted 63 so far, so we have a total of 79. So, invariably, we have performed more than the school that started 12 years ago. Now, we have a total of 132. We took over the students and staff of ITM”.
But, the chairman interjected and corrected the rector on the number of students, saying that when added, it is 142, not 132.
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A member of the Committee, after an observation of the institution’s expenditure, described the spending as a waste and unsustainable.
He said, “It is high time we tell ourselves the truth. If you have 142 students, that’s like an elementary school. In my village, we have a primary school. The students there are more than 500.
“A Polytechnic, a federal Polytechnic for that matter having 142 students and your personnel is N496 million, almost N500 million, for a school that has 142 students. Your overhead is N159 million for a school that has 142 students. Your Capital is N25 million. What is the justification for all this spending?”.
Chairman of the Committee, Laguda, while addressing the rectors at the end of the sitting, expressed the disappointment of the Committee over the poor presentation by the institutions.
He said, “We called schools from South-South for an oversight and… Not one of the schools met the required requirements or did what was expected. Considering the fact that you had over a week of notification.
“But you’ve been aware over two months ago that your turn was going to come. Because we’ve been doing this oversight function for a while. Out of seven schools, one of the schools is not even here today”.
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
