The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sonny Echono, is currently being investigated over alleged fraud by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
This was revealed by the ICPC spokesman, Demola Bakare, on Friday in Abuja.
Echono was invited and detained by the ICPC on Thursday over a questionable N7.6 billion project.
According to Bakare, Echono remains in the agency’s custody, pending ongoing investigations into the allegations of fraud.
“The Executive Secretary of TETFund is here with us. He has been invited for questioning. He is still in custody. He was invited yesterday.
“He was invited on Thursday. He has not been released. He’s still with us. Investigation is still ongoing.” He said.
TETfund had awarded two contracts without the approval of the federal executive council (FEC) to Fides Et Ratio Academy and Pole Global Marketing (PGM) within two months at the cost of N3.8 billion respectively which is required for the contract size.
The project was intended for a capacity building course and learning management systems to about 2 million students across higher institutions in the country.
However, TETFund said it did not award the N7.6 billion contracts without due process, emphasizing that they were ICT projects implemented under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which doesn’t require competitive bidding in public procurement.
TETFund added that its disbursement guidelines were approved by the president on the recommendation of the Fund’s Board of Trustees and concurrence of the Honourable Minister of Education, citing the TETFund Act 2011.
saharandaily