The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa has called for urgent financial interventions from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, to improve the operations of Unity Schools and enhance ministry-wide efficiency.

Alausa made this call in Abuja on Wednesday when he hosted the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Shamsudeen Ogunjimi, on an official visit.

The Minister raised concerns over the delay in overhead payments and school feeding allocations to unity schools.

He noted that the last overhead release to the Federal Ministry of Education was in March, and the last school feeding budget received was for April, leaving schools financially strained.

“We’re going through a rough patch. Principals are under pressure from contractors who are blackmailing them over unpaid contracts.

“In fact, I had to delay school resumption in some Unity Schools due to fears of insufficient food supply,” Alausa disclosed.

He urged the AGF to help fast-track payments and proposed a quarterly release model to provide schools with a stable financial runway.

Additionally, the minister raised issues about unpaid contractors and recommended that the AGF streamline the government’s bottom-up cash plan to boost efficiency.

While voicing strong support for the policy, the minister called for the decentralisation of financial approvals, suggesting that transactions under ₦500 million be processed at the ministry level, and those under ₦100 million at the agency level.

“What I would suggest, because you’re having to deal with a big country like ours, 220 million people, and in any country, the federal government of that country is the big contributor to the economy.

“So rather than all payments, even as low as 1 million coming to you, I think you should look back and see which one you can domicile at the ministry and the agencies level,” he said.

Responding, Ogunjimi acknowledged the concerns and pledged to work closely with the ministry to find practical solutions.

Ogunjimi pledged to prioritise funding for the Federal Ministry of Education, particularly for Unity Schools and overhead releases, acknowledging the ministry’s strategic national role.

He aligned with calls to release funding on a termly basis, rather than monthly, and requested that the Director of Finance and Accounts (DFA) submit a formal request to enable timely disbursement.

“We will prioritise the releases of overhead to the ministry and make sure that, even if others are not getting it due to funding constraints, the Ministry of Education gets theirs on time,” he said.

He acknowledged ongoing challenges with the current bottom-up cash management policy.

This, he said, is a reform introduced to allow Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to begin implementation of appropriated budgets as soon as the National Assembly passes the budget.

While describing the intent of the policy as progressive, he admitted it had placed enormous pressure on government financial systems due to the country’s existing fiscal constraints.

“The fund is not our problem. Had it been that we didn’t have the fiscal challenges that we’re having, it would have been a better policy for us.

“But because of the deficits that we’re having, so it makes the policy very difficult,” he said.

Ogunjimi disclosed that the Minister of Finance had already set up a high-level committee to review the merits and shortcomings of the bottom-up approach, with a harmonised and more practical policy expected in the coming weeks.

He also revealed that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) had been overwhelmed by the volume of budget documentation being uploaded by agencies due to the centralised system.

“Our capacity has been overstretched because all agencies are required to upload all their documents.

“So, we continually have to go and expand and dig for this.

“Whereas, like you also said, most of these contracts that are less value can be handled at the MDA level so that we don’t have to populate those documents on our system,” he said. (NAN)

Edited by Rotimi Ijikanmi