CHIDIMMA UCHEGBU
The Federal Government has urged all the state governments to ensure judicious and accountable utilization of the matching grant disbursed to them for implementation of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBE).
Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, made the call on Monday in Abuja while declaring open a Six-day training for Accountants and Auditors of the Commission alongside those of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs).
He frowned at situations where state officials mount unnecessary pressure on financial officers, urging the officers in SUBEBs to resist pressure from any quarters to commit infractions and compromise standards.
Bobboyi said the purpose of the training was to familiarize participants with the newly reviewed accounting manual and provide a comprehensive understanding of financial infractions and sanctions noting that such knowledge was crucial to ensuring successful service delivery in basic education.
He said: “Given the mandates of UBEC and SUBEBs in implementing the UBE programme, it is imperative that we strengthen our accounting system to ensure judicious utilization of government investment in the sector.
“As such, it becomes our responsibility to be accountable to the Nigerian public regarding the management of Federal Government UBE Intervention Fund and its overall impact.
“To fulfill these responsibilities effectively, it is necessary to continuously enhance our institutional capacity by improving professional competence among all UBEC and SUBEB staff members,” he stated.
The UBEC boss lamented that while trainings have been provided for the finance staff in accordance with the set objectives, it was disheartening to observe that these trainings have not yielded significant improvements in workplaces.
He revealed that regular quarterly financial monitoring activities conducted by UBEC reveal “poor record-keeping practices as well infractions that violate established rules, regulations, and guidelines”.
He added that observations made from these monitoring exercises were forwarded to SUBEBs along with recommendations for necessary actions.
He stressed on the need to strictly adhere to the existing rules, regulations, and guidelines intended to guide the financial transactions for accountability, transparency, and value-for-money purposes.
“As finance officers, it is your responsibility to ensure strict compliance with these government stipulations. I must stress that adhering to ethical standards is an essential part of your professional duty.
“You will not be excused if you engage or condone any wrong doings. And let us not forget that reports generated from UBEC’s Financial Monitoring assessments are not merely intended for internal use only; they can be requested by relevant agencies tasked with enforcing compliance with existing laws and regulations,” he said.
He urged the participants to take full advantage of the training programme so that on return to their respective offices they would equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills needed to bring about positive changes in accounting practices at both the Commission and Boards.
Earlier, Director of Finance and Accounts, UBEC, Adamu Misau, said in order to safeguard the FGN-UBE Intervention Fund, the UBEC management had developed a new sanction regime in 2022 which was approved for implementation by the Commission Governing Board.
He explained that the UBEC management had to delay the implementation until all the financial managers of Basic Education Fund were trained; hence the training programme organised by his department for the financial officers.
“We hope that by the end of this training, we will be better equipped to judiciously handle the FGN-UBE Intervention Funds with due regards to financial regulations, guidelines and due process in the accessing, utilizing, accounting and reporting of the funds,” he said.
