The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has dismissed reports churned out by some online newspaper, which accused the agency of malpractices in the conduct of staff promotion exercise and non-publication of disbursement of funds on its website.
A statement signed by Mr. Abdulmumin Oniyangi, Acting Director, Public Affairs of TETFund and obtained by Voice of Nigeria on Sunday, said the reports, were mere figment of imaginations of the authors and were done in bad faith,
The statement read in full: “The attention of the Management of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has been drawn to two publications issued by Sahara Reporters titled “Workers of Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund Agency Alleged Corruption, Infraction in Promotion Examinations” published on November 3, 2021 and “How Nigeria’s Education Fund, TETFund Covered Up Disbursements of Multi-Billion Naira Fund, Allocations from 2013,” published on November 11, 2021.
“While the Management of TETFund chose not to respond to the first publication because it was masterminded in bad faith by a few staff of the Fund who did not meet the minimum mark prescribed for the examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), it has become imperative to set the records straight in view of the second publication which we perceive is also sponsored by the staff to deliberately discredit the management of the Fund and mislead our stakeholders and the public at large.”
On the conduct of promotion examinations by the Fund, the Fund we stated that the promotion exam was conducted in line with best practices,
According to the fund ,“independent examination bodies such as the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) and JAMB have over the years been engaged by the Fund to ensure transparency and non-interference in the process”
“For the 2021 senior staff promotion examination conducted by the Fund, ASCON was originally engaged to offer refresher courses and conduct examinations for participants.
However, there were widespread complaints and petitions regarding the outcome of the examination addressed not only to the Fund but also to the Federal Ministry of Education, which is the Fund’s supervisory ministry.
“We therefore, wish to state categorically that the decision to conduct a fresh examination organized by JAMB was taken after the review and directive issued by the Federal Ministry of Education and not for reasons perceived by the sponsors of the publication.
“Additionally, the setting of higher minimum criteria for the examination does not in any way contravene the provisions of the Public Service Rules which only recommend minimum standards,” Tetfund added.
