The Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Professor Adeniyi Olowofela yesterday hinted that the management and unions of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso have acceded to call made by the two owner states to be audited as a way to resolve the limbering imbroglio rocking the institution.
Speaking during a radio program held on a private radio station in Ibadan, Prof. Olowofela disclosed that KPMG is billed to complete the audit of LAUTECH not later than Friday, August 25, 2017.
According to him, activities are in top gear to ensure the school’s protracted crises are resolved, assuring that the report by the auditing firm will fast track the process to surmount the impending crises rocking the institution.
Olowofela also clarified that the state government’s establishment of Ibadan Technical University (Tech-U) is not to make it as preference over the LAUTECH. He noted that Tech U total school payment package stands at about N900, 000 saying that, while the University is built for people that have capacity to pay, there are modalities to resolve soon the crisis of LAUTECH whose tuition fee is affordable.
Also, speaking on some reasons for the protracted crisis, the Commissioner said there are some intricacies involved in the matter of LAUTECH.
According to him, Osun State, which is a co-owner state to Oyo State has a university which is self-financing. “The position of Osun State government was that if Osun State university that was established 12 years ago can be self-financing, LAUTECH that has been established for twenty years plus must be self-financing as well especially now that there’s dwindling allocation to states from federal government”, he said.
Olowofela added that, to show the seriousness of both state governments towards the institution, the two state governments in January, 2017 committed N292 million each to solve the immediate problem of the school while the state governments later jointly approved the audit of the school by KPMG.
He also added that, between 2011 and 2017, the Oyo State government has single handedly spent 10.2 billion on LAUTECH University, N8.3 billion on LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso and N3.7 billion on LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo in Osun State.
Olowofela noted that if the state government is not serious about issue of LAUTECH, it would not have spent a whopping N22 billion on the institution.
