Osun State Government has called on members of the public to prevail on the management and staff of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) to be opened and sincere on ending the lingering crisis rocking the university. lautech-ogbomosho
The state government, in a press statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Adelani Baderinwa, on Sunday, said it is concerned about the plight of the students of the institution, hence the need to alert the public on what is going on in the LAUTECH.
According to press statement, the state government was worried on and doing all humanly possible to resolve the crisis and ensure quick resumption, notwithstanding the selfish politics being played by some people, management union and staff of the institution.
The government claimed that some elements within the university were not sincere on resolving the matter, saying that such people are grandstanding and deliberately stifling efforts to pull out the institution out of the crisis.
The government said the setting up of the Chief Wole Olanipekun led visitation panel which recommended auditing of the university, is a bold step taken by the Osun and Oyo states government to ensure a lasting solution to the crisis.
Based on the recommendation, the state government said the two owner states engaged the service of KPMG to audit the university accounts, disclosing that ‘internal enemies’ in the institution are frustrating the auditing exercise.
It maintained despite the resolve of Governor Rauf Aregbesola and Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo states to bring lasting solution to the institution crisis, the some members of staff and management are sabotaging the owners’ efforts.
The Osun government commended Ajimobi’s administration for its understanding and commitment to bring back LAUTECH to live.
The press release reads: “It is worrisome and disturbing, especially in this present recession time, to know that LAUTECH runs 97 bank accounts when the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has become the order of the day. There are 10 Chief Accountants which is not so in other universities.
“More worrisome too is that LAUTECH has lost money in many distressed banks according to the report of the visitation panel.
“For 27 years of existence, Osun Government lived up to its expectations as equal partner , notwithstanding the obvious cheating meted to it as only one (1) out of the eight (8) academic faculties is in Osun, while Oyo has about twice of the staff strength of the University.
“Osun single-handedly funded the infrastructure development in the Osun campus; also 85 per cent of the total institution’s infrastructure is in Oyo, whereas funding is equally carried out. Despite this, we are fully committed to joint ownership of our joint heritage. Indeed, we staunchly fought for it in 2010 when effort was mis-advisedly made”
The state government said it was worried about the level of mismanagement of funds in the university, saying that the institution should have been self-sufficient financially by now.
“Osun State University with student population of about 9000 with six campuses which implies more recurrent cost and just nine years old like some other state University in the country are surviving.
“It is surprising that a more viable LAUTECH with students population of 26,360 undergraduates paying average of N70, 000 tuition fee, part-time students of over 2000 paying average of N120, 000, 1560 academic postgraduate students paying N150, 000; professional post-graduate students of 2600 paying average of N250, 000, pre-degree, distant learning and other programmes cannot survive on its own.
“While ventures in other institutions thrive, that of LAUTECH is dead. TETFUND and Needs Assessment Funds running into billions have been given to LAUTECH without commensurate research output to show for it.
“Right-thinking members of the society should please prevail on LAUTECH management and staff to allow owner governments to do the right thing – proper auditing which invariably will ensure proper running of the institution and make it responsive to the essence of its establishment”, it added.
