BY DEMOLA AKINYEMI

ILORIN- The authorities of Federal Polytechnic, Ofa, Kwara State, have denied newspaper report (not Vanguard) that contracts worth N2.5 billion were hurriedly awarded to members of the dissolved governing council.

In a related development, accreditation teams from the National Board for Technical Education were in the Polytechnic recently for accreditation and re-accreditation of programmes in the Schools of Applied Science Technology, Business and Management Studies, Communication and Information Technology, Engineering, and Environmental Studies.

In a statement by Head, Public Relations and Protocol Unit,Mr Wole Alawode, the institution described the said publication as malicious and false allegation.

It expressed concern that the story painted a picture of fraud in the polytechnic by alluding that contracts were hurriedly awarded to members of the just- dissolved governing council and other sundry allegations.

The statement explained that the polytechnic never engaged in any shoddy award of contracts.

It noted that, “The contract award process followed government guidelines commencing with prequalification advertisement in the Federal Tenders Journal of Monday, July 11, 2011and the process concluded well ahead of the Presidential pronouncement on dissolution of Boards and Councils of parastatals and agencies on October 19, 2011”.

The statement posited that,‘’ The actual fact is that a number of projects were approved by the Federal Government for the development of the Permanent Site as well as rehabilitation of some structures in the mini campus. This could have been easily verified by your newspaper by checking the 2011 Appropriation Act”, stressing that“ as a responsible Federal Government owned institution, it is guided by relevant laws in all its activities”.

Receiving the accreditation teams at a formal ceremony in the Polytechnic Boardroom, the Rector Dr. Mufutau Olatinwo disclosed that the Polytechnic has been making efforts to ensure that all its programmes are always accredited.

He expressed the readiness of the Polytechnic Management and staff to cooperate with the resource persons and assist them in their tasks.

The leader of the Team Mrs Grace Mekeri-Yahaya disclosed that the accreditation is for quality assurance purposes and would assist the Polytechnic in many ways.