The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has uncovered illegal and unathorised utilisation of funds totalling N3.32bn in the Universal Basic Education Board in one year.

This was contained in a report of the investigation carried out on the Universal Basic Education Commission and SUBEBs by the ICPC.

The investigation was carried out following a petition by a non-governmental organisation, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, which alleged that in spite of the huge amount of money disbursed to UBEC in the period under review, there was no significant improvement in the lives of Nigerian children.

It covered disbursement made to UBEC and 36 SUBEBs including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, between January 2005 and December 2006.

The ICPC stated in the executive summary of the report obtained by our correspondent on Thursday that it had recovered N2.31bn from the siphoned funds.

But the ICPC said that six states namely Benue, Borno, Sokoto, Yobe, Nasarawa and Kebbi had so far refused to refund the remaining N1.01b.

According to the report, Benue is to refund N16.8m; Borno, N3.1m; Kebbi, N551.5m; Nasarawa, N92.8m; Sokoto, N349.2m; while Yobe is to refund N2.9m.

The ICPC also discovered that due to the fraud, most of the projects carried out by the UBEC and SUBEBs violated the due process rules while the jobs done were shoddy.

”Most of the classroom blocks visited, which were said to be completed, were already in bad shape with either collapsed ceiling or poor flooring. A general appraisal under investigation showed little or no value for money for most of the contracts,” the ICPC stated..

In the period under review, the total statutory allocation released to UBEC was N54.78bn representing two per cent of the consolidated revenue for 2005 and 2006 fiscal years.

The allocation, the ICPC stated, was to cater for education imbalance among states in the country; provide grants to states adjudged as performing well; provide school feeding programme, take care of the physically/mentally challenged children and provide matching grants to be contributed by the Federal and state governments on equal basis of 50 per cent each.

But rather than using the money for the purpose for which it was meant, the ICPC‘s investigations revealed that some states were committing it to illegal and unauthorised payments including transfer, diversion, misapplication of funds and fictitious claims.

The ICPC stated that in Kebbi State, for instance, N526.5m was disbursed from the UBE funds to fictitious contractors.