By Maryam Abeeb
The Management Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has denied report that N110 billion of the intervention funds accessed from UBEC were not utilised by states as of 2021 with the money left in the coffers of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs).
The Commission in a statement by the Heac, Public Relations, David Apeh explained that it is not only a misrepresentation of comments made by the Executive Secretary of UBEC at a briefing to flag off the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA) but a mischievous way of distorting facts to put the Commission in the bad light.
According to him, the authors also falsely alleged corruption at UBEC and calling for thorough investigation and the culprits brought to book by the government while also talking about undue politicisation of UBEC Funds.
The statement reads, “the attention of the Management Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has been drawn to an Editorial by the Sun Newspaper of 20th June, 2023 to the effect that about N110 billion of the intervention funds accessed from UBEC were not utilised by states as of 2021 with the money left in the coffers of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs).
“This is not only a misrepresentation of comments made by the Executive Secretary of UBEC at a briefing to flag off the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA) but a mischievous of way of distorting facts to put the Commission in the bad light.
“The authors also falsely alleged corruption at UBEC and calling for thorough investigation and the culprits brought to book by the government while also talking about undue politicisation of UBEC Funds.
“These are false and baseless allegations that cannot be substantiated because the current management of UBEC and indeed the Executive Secretary has continued to run the affairs of the Commission in an open and transparent manner.
“To set the records straight, there is no time the Executive Secretary of UBEC, lamented that the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were not coming forth with their counterpart funds that will enable them to access the annual matching grant.
“What the Executive Secretary said while responding to a question on the total amount of un-accessed fund was that it was between N28 to N30 billion but insisted that the account department should supply the correct figures at the end of the briefing so that wrong information is not sent out to the public. “
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