The varsity commission failed to convince the parliamentary committee that license fees and other revenues it generated were used for the purpose of visitation to private institutions
The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has taken a swipe at the National Universities Commission (NUC) for under-reporting and failing to fully remit its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) despite being fully funded by the federal government.
The lawmakers also tackled the Commission over its failure to reflect accordingly the amount of money collected as revenue from private universities through the issuance of licenses running into millions of naira.
This development came to light during an interaction with the House of Representatives Committee on Finance led by its Deputy Chairman, Rep. Abdullahi Musa (APC, Niger).
The committee accused the varsity commission of going against the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), 2007, which does not authorize it to spend whatever they generate because they are a fully funded agency and should remit 100 per cent of their IGR to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
Rep. Musa cited a sum of N35 million and other monies that the NUC but allegedly did not remit, saying “it is supposed to be captured in your budget and that is why we say you are 100 per cent funded. So whatever is coming in must be reported.”
Speaking on the non-remittance of IGR for issuance of licenses for private universities, Musa queried: “Why did you not reflect the issuance of licenses to private universities in your presentation and document. It is IGR to you and it should be there. It is supposed to be captured in your budget and nobody expects you to spend anything that comes to you.”
In his response, the Deputy Executive Secretary (DES) of the NUC, Dr. Noel Saliu, said whatever comes in as issuance of licenses is spent on visitation to those schools. “What comes in goes to visiting those universities and looking at their books.”
The varsity commission official further explained that private universities cannot be regulated or controlled because they provide everything for themselves. “The truth is we can not regulate them (private universities) because we do not have control over them. Based on the point you just raised, those universities are providing everything for themselves including electricity which is very expensive”, he explained.
In his final remarks, Rep. Musa urged NUC to provide receipts of licenses issued as well as its financial reports in the last 3 years.
