From: Taiwo Oluwadare, Ibadan
Commissioner for Education in Oyo State, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, on Wedensday, said the management of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, has acceded to call by two owner states to be audited as a way to resolve the protracted crises of the institution.
Prof. Olowofela, during a radio programme on Impact Business Radio (IBR), in Ibadan, disclosed that the audit firm, KPMG report would be completed not later than Friday, August 25.
According to the commissioner, activities are in top gear to ensure the school’s protracted crises are resolved saying 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 was 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 technical 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 to the poor masses.
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 there’s dwindling allocation to state 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, Oshogbo in Osun State.
Olowofela noted that if the state government was not serious about issue of LAUTECH, it would not have spent a whopping N22 billion on the institution.