INVESTIGATION: TETFund pays N2.9 billion to contractor for unexecuted job (2024)

Five days before the end of the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) – a tertiary institutions funding agency under the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) – surreptitiously awarded a contract worth over N3.8 billion (N3,812,500,000) in disregard for the law.

Without any evidence of execution of the contract, investigations by PREMIUM TIMES revealed, the agency paid the contractor a total sum of N2.9 billion (N2,932,032,516.28) in four installments between 30 June and 17 November 2023.

In violation of the law establishing it, TETFund sourced the funding for the project from the 2023 annual direct disbursem*nt budget domiciled in the agency for the use of about 251 beneficiary institutions, that is, public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education across Nigeria.

The 2023 direct disbursem*nt budget for these institutions which amounted to N15.2 billion was for Information Communication and Technology Intervention Projects. But instead of releasing the funds to the institutions as mandated by law, TETFund illegally deducted upfront 50 per cent of the funds from each of the institutions, amounting to a total of N7.6 billion.

PREMIUM TIMES found no evidence of bidding for the contract as demanded by Nigeria’s procurement law. There was also no approval from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) or even by the President. TETFund bypassed these mandatory requirements to award the contract tagged: ‘Capacity Building Certificate Course (Communication, Entrepreneurship, and Productive Skill Development) inclusive of the Train-the-Trainer programme for 502 (five hundred and two) participants’.

The contract was awarded to a company – Fides Et Ratio Academy.

The company, which has no functional website, is described by TETFund as “an IP Licensee for Prof. Klaus Stierstorfer, a copyright owner and intellectual property right holder in all range of communication skills development courses marketed globally under Edunet Solutions.”

The letter of contract award dated 24 May 2023 was signed by the Director of Human Resources and General Administration, Kolapo Okunlola.

But in its response to PREMIUM TIMES inquiry on the subject, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), the body statutorily empowered to regulate contract awards for ministries, departments, and agencies of the government, said “the contract is not found in its database.”

The contract award is therefore a violation of the Public Procurement Act 2007, which by virtue of its section 15(a), is applicable to “all procurement of goods, works and services carried out by: the Federal Government of Nigeria and all procurement entities”. The law under section 15(c) only exempts the procurement of special goods, works and services involving national defence or national security.

But on 30 June 2023, the company’s account with Fidelity Bank Plc was credited with over N550 million (N550,380,780.23) by the Central Bank of Nigeria on behalf of TETFund. The transfer is with mandate number CBN/PROJ/224/JUN2023. Over N820 million (N820,223,850) was additionally paid into the account on 12 July 2023.

On 26 July 2023 and 17 November 2023, the sums of N1.5 billion (N1,503,743,850) and N62.68 million (N62,684,036.05) were credited into the account by the CBN on behalf of TETFund, respectively.

About contract

In its efforts to justify the contract, TETFund said it found out that the greatest challenges working against universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education’s quest to address the declining rate in employment and productivity of the Nigerian graduates “is their inability to engage in increasing capacity building and training for their students.”

This, it said, is due to “the decreasing internal and external budgetary support as a result of the global economic recession and the rising cost of face to face training needed to satisfy the commercial, industrial and technological needs of the country.”

The agency also said it identified skills gap in academics “as a major impediment in grooming their students in communication, entrepreneurship, and productive skill development.”

Therefore, TETFund said the capacity-building courses would help students gain skills in interpersonal communication, public speaking, conflict resolution, and team building.

“In addition to this, the capacity building programme is aimed at deepening the ICT staff, other officials, and students’ capacity in communication, entrepreneurship, and productive skill development,” the agency said.

Remarkably, TETFund’s reply to PREMIUM TIMES’ inquiry was a verbatim regurgitation of the grounds contained in the proposal submitted to the agency by the contractor.

“In view of the foregoing, beneficiary institutions nominated two (2) ICT staff to be trained under the Train-The-Trainer capacity building programme and a minimum number of Two million students from all the Beneficiary Institutions for three (3) online certification courses that will qualify an individual for the International Certificate of General Communication Skills and the International Certificate of Advanced Communication Skills. The student online courses and Train-The-Trainer programme will thereby expose a larger number of participants in the public tertiary institutions to in-depth communication, entrepreneurship, and productive skill development to attract the following benefits…,” TETFund wrote in its letter to PREMIUM TIMES dated 25 March.

The letter, referenced: TETF/LBS/EC/12/Vol. V, was signed on behalf of the Executive Secretary, Sonny Echnonu, by the Head of Legal Unit, Khalil Abdul.

When asked about its legitimacy to train students of the institutions directly, TETFund told PREMIUM TIMES that it is empowered to “carry out capacity building programmes for our beneficiary institutions.”

No contract executed

We asked TETFund to provide evidence for the execution of the contract, including the list of participants, links to the online portal for the training, and pictures or video clips of training sessions.

In its response to this question, the agency simply said “the programmes are still ongoing.”

The agency in its letter also said it received presidential approval for the contract, but also failed to provide this in its communication to the newspaper.

However, findings from the various institutions also indicated that no participant has been drawn among the students while ICT directors said they kicked against the idea when it was mooted.

Investigations by PREMIUM TIMES further revealed that in 2023, across the six geopolitical zones, TETFund officials, accompanied by the promoter of the company awarded the contract, Paul Chukwuma, met with ICT directors of the beneficiary institutions.

“Yes, we had a meeting based on geo-political zones but that could not be said to be any training for us. It was a dialogue on improving the ICT infrastructure on our campuses and improving our staff skills. Nothing more transpired,” one of the ICT directors in one of the institutions, who does not want to be named to avert retribution for speaking to the media on a sensitive issue without permission, told this newspaper.

Funding sourced illegally

In a memo addressed to all vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts, dated 16 June 2023 and signed by the Director of ICT, Joseph Odo, TETFund said all beneficiary institutions of ICT support intervention allocations should make a “written commitment to participate in the Training-The-Trainer (TTT) prgramme using 50 per cent of the ICT Support Intervention Fund (N50 million for universities, N25 million for polytechnics and colleges of education) set aside for ICT converged services.”

TETFund also directed the institutions to nominate 12 participants to be trained on the capacity development and technology support programme, and should “commit to pay the 12 participants cost of travel, DTA for five days and other costs to be paid by TETFund using the 50 per cent ICT Support Intervention Allocation domiciled in the Fund.”

The letter added: “Note that the Fund will calculate the course fees based on the distribution of participants per geographical zone and deduct the same from your institution’s allocation for the converged services using the 50 per cent of the 2023 ICT support Intervention set aside.”

PREMIUM TIMES, however, learnt that most of the tertiary institutions concerned ignored TETFund, insisting that the agency does not have the power to engage a private organisation or school to train either their staff or students on any subject. But TETFund went ahead to deduct the fund and paid the contractor, using the fund without the approval of either the tertiary institutions or the Presidency.

Contract not in our database – BPP

In its letter dated 2 April, addressed to PREMIUM TIMES, and signed by the Director of Compliance, Certification and Monitoring, Isaiah Yesufu, the Bureau of Public Procurement, denied any knowledge of the contract award.

The letter, referenced BPP/S.1/CCM/24/Vol.1/069, said: “The Bureau wishes to state that there is no information in its database pertaining to the projects you referenced in your letter which according to you were approved/awarded by TETFund in May, 2023…”

The agency commended the newspaper for contacting it, and pledged its support in its commitment to ensuring probity and accountability.

Companies keep mum

Both Fides Et Ratio Academy and Edunet Solutions have refused to respond to inquiries by PREMIUM TIMES on the matter.

A personal website of 46-year-old Paul Chukwuma, who described himself as an entrepreneur, lists Fides Et Ratio Academy as one of the eight institutions or companies reportedly owned by him.

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Other institutions said to be owned by Mr Chukwuma are Fides et Ratio Limited, Fibelle and Mibelle Limited, Humble Rock Limited, Humble Rock Iron and Steel Limited, Paclean Energy Resources Limited, Olivia Hotels, and Olivia University.

But efforts to get Mr Chukwuma’s response to this newspaper’s inquiries were unsuccessful as he neither picked calls to his known mobile telephone number nor replied to messages delivered to his line as SMS and via his WhatsApp number.

PREMIUM TIMES made futile efforts to locate the office of the contractor, Fides Et Ratio Academy, at their stated address, Plot 493, Abogo Largema Street, CBD, Abuja, on Monday. Within the vicinity are the World Trade Centre, Church Gate Building and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution which occupies Plot 496 on the street but the company could not be located there.