The House of Representatives has threatened to name and shame vice chancellors of universities allegedly involved in illegal budget approvals and extra-constitutional spendings over the years.
The House Committee on Public Accounts issued the threat, declaring that it would not hesitate to publish the names of the vice chancellors involved in the national dailies, if they failed to appear before the committee to clear their names.
Chairman of the committee, Honourable Oluwole Oke, issued the threat on Wednesday, at the resumed hearing on the onging investigation of over 100 federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) accused of complicity by the Office of the AGF.
This was in reaction to the indictment of the affected vice chancellors by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) over the alleged illegal approvals and extra-constitutional expenditures.
The lower chamber of the National Assembly therefore directed the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Rasheed Adamu, to produce all the vice chancellors allegedly involved in the illegal dealings.
Oke spoke after the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State, Professor Abdullahi Leman Tukur, made his presentation before the House Committee.
“The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) is hereby directed to bring the affected vice chancellors before this honourable committee to speak to the audit queries raised against their universities.
“Enough of this ignoble act. Why are they avoiding the Parliament? It means they have something to hide,” the chairman of the House Committee on PAC said.
He further said: “The Committee is trying to give the affected vice chancellors an opportunity of fair hearing. We are going to name them and shame them in the national dailies. We have the power to issue warrant of arrest against them. They must account for public funds they collected.”
Honourable Oke said the directive became necessary as the affected vice chancellors have allegedly refused to honour all the invitations extended to them without any justification and directed the Clerk of the House Committee to immediately notify the Minister of Education about the development.
He urged Professor Tukur to assist the House of Representatives to educate his colleagues on the need for them to appear before the committee, based on his experience during his own appearace, assuring that the committee was not out to harass them.
The NUC Executive Secretary, Professor Tukur, commended the federal lawmakers for their good work and promised to talk to his colleagues on the need for them to appear before the committee.
The vice chancellors are expected to appear before the House Committee with the following: copies of the budgetary estimates NUC presented to Mr President through the Budget Office of the Federation, with respect to the 2015-2022 fiscal year;
Copies of the budget estimates that were presented to Mr President and which were, in turn, presented to the National Assembly;
Confirmation of whether the constitutionally-laid down process was complied with prior to expenditures from the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by NUC, with documentary evidence; and approved budgets (both appropiation and IGR 2021 and 2022), among others.
