At the face of the daunting challenges confronting the College as a result of paucity of funds, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has assured the College of the support of the Ministry to overcome the problem.
The assurance was given during a courtesy visit on the Minister by members of the College Governing Council led by the Chairman, Engr. Sa’ad Abubakar Abdullahi at his office on 5th December, 2019.
Earlier in his presentation, Engr. Sa’ad intimated the Minister of the debilitating problems confronting the College and appealed for the ministry’s Special intervention. According to the Chairman, the College’s financial predicament is hinged on the inability to pay up some accrued indebtedness owing to lack of funds. He stated that the problem was due largely to the burden placed on the College to pay for the outsourced services, cleaning and security and the peculiar allowances from the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the College which he regrettably noted that “it’s gradually diminishing and can no longer suffice in sustaining the burden of payment”. The College Internally Generated Revenue, “for the first quarter, 2019, what was generated as IGR was barely up to one hundred million naira (N100,000,000.oo) out of this amount a large chunk is held in trust for the third party such as NHIS, SIWES, undergraduate collaboration contribution etc. The remaining is barely enough to service such commitments as payment for out sourced cleaning and security services, electricity bills, accreditation, Governing council expenses and other Sunday fixed costs which the College has to meet”, he stressed.
He stated further that, the cost implication of the twenty three months indebtedness of peculiar allowance stood at one hundred and forty eight million, two hundred and three thousand seven hundred and forty eight naira, fifty eight kobo (148,203,748.58k) and that of 2019, with financial implication of one hundred and eight million naira (N108,000,000.00) was submitted, with the hope that it would be captured in 2019 Appropriation but it was not.
In addition, there was another nine million five hundred thousand naira (N9,500,000.00) accrued for payment as arrears to two hundred and six (216) number of former staff of the College severed in 2007 by the Bureau for Public Service Reform (BRPS), for non implementation of CONTEDISS in their severance package, since the salary structure was implemented five months before their disengagement from service.
According to the chairman, the financial burden of the College is further compounded by the drastic fall in the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), as a result of low enrollment, occasioned by the socio-economic situation of the environment. Coupled with the irregular releases of overhead grants by the Federal Government, “which at least could have given us (the College) succor in the payment of staff claims and meeting our obligations to creditors as well as servicing the fixed cost obligations”.
The Provost of the College, Dr. Umar Hassan while corroborating on the Chairman’s submissions, appealed to the Minister to come to the aid of the College by way of government special intervention, which he believes would douse the imminent threat to peace and Industrial harmony.
In his response, the Minister, expressed surprise at the delay in the release of overhead. He observed that the Accountant General of the Federation had promised to ensure quick release of the overhead and wonder why it is still been delayed. He therefore assured the College that the issue and that of salary arrears would be taken up with Accountant General. While assuring the College of the commitment of the Ministry to do something about the requests put before him, he directed the College to forward to his office its request on areas that requires Special Intervention.
Highpoint of the visit was the presentation of a beautifully designed roll up picture stand to the Minister to felicitate with him on his well deserved reappointment as a Minister of the Federal republic of Nigeria.