From Fred Ezeh, Abuja

The minister raised the complaint at a meeting with the officials from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), led by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamsedeen Babatunde Ogunjimi, in Abuja, on Wednesday.

He specifically mentioned the issues of budget funding, financing of the activities of the Federal Government Colleges (FGCs), otherwise known as Unity schools, as well as other activities of the ministry, considering the size of the ministry.

He said: “On one of the occasions, I had to postpone the resumption of students at the unity schools because we were not sure the vendors would make the necessary supplies needed to feed the children.

“Principals of these unity schools are facing a barrage of insults and humiliation from these vendors because of their inability to offset the debts. Many of the vendors are being owed for the services rendered for the past three to four months, which has affected their commitment to the services. The last overhead we received at the ministry was in March.

“Ideally, the budget for feeding our unity schools students should be released quarterly, instead of monthly. This will allow for a longer time to process another round of release, thus, ensuring that all activities in the system are uninterrupted.”

He asked the OAGF to emulate the reforms done by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), which helped to ensure efficiency in service delivery. “I am a proponent of bottom-up currently being implemented. But we need to improve on it.”

The Accountant-General, in his response, appreciated the opportunity from the minister and assured him that the issues raised would be swiftly attended to. He asked the Director of Finance and Administration in the ministry to formally bring the request to the OAGF for attention. But he assured the minister that things will improve as soon as possible.

“For overhead, the Ministry of Education is very strategic, and as a result, we would ensure that things improve as regards timely release of overhead funding. For capital, we are working on reviewing bottom-up policy. The Minister of Finance has set up a committee to look at the merit and demerit of the policy. We are almost done with it.”