CSOs demand probe on trapped N4.9bn meal subsidy

Civil Society Organisations have called on the Federal Government to investigate why the Ministry of Finance failed to release a N4.9bn meal subsidy for 112 Federal Unity Colleges across the country.

The According had earlier revealed that a sum of N2,478,056,400 was paid monthly to all the 112 FUCs, but the finance ministry skipped the payment of the intervention funds for November and December 2023.

The ministry, however, paid the intervention funds for January 2024 to date. The immediate past Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Didi Walson-Jack, who is the Head of Civil Service of the Federation-designate, in February 2024, wrote to her finance counterpart, asking that the intervention funds for the two months be released.

Walson-Jack noted that the failure to release the subsidy was affecting the smooth running of the colleges, adding that the current challenges being encountered in the management of the meal subsidy in the schools were as a result of the inflation and the worsening effect of the recurring late releases of the meal subsidy funds to the schools.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, in a conversation with Saturday According, highlighted the need to investigate and unravel the reason for withholding such funds as the ministry ought to have released the money to the schools a long time ago.

He also raised the alarm that the people in charge of the funds might have temporarily diverted them for personal gains, noting that anybody found culpable of causing the delay should be brought to book.

According to him, while the people in charge of the funds are investigated, all factors, including any bureaucratic disturbances, which may have contributed to the delay, should also be identified.

He said, “It is a fund that ought to have been planned for since a very long time. So, if there is any bureaucratic disturbance, they ought to have ironed it out before it was due not to speak of running it to arrears so those that are in charge should be thoroughly investigated.”

“Everybody involved should be made to account for his role in the delay or in the withholding of that fund, and if anybody has benefited from it, they should be jailed.”

Also, the Secretary of the Oyo State chapter of the Joint Action Forum, Abiodun Bamgboye, said averting such situations would require that the management and control of the resources made for all the institutions were subjected to democratic management and by a board which would include students, parents, and representatives of the government as members.