According to him, the inability of former managers of the polytechnic to adequately account for previous funds for physical projects in the school prompted the decision of TETFUND and other funders to stop giving funds to the institution.Seiyaboh stated this during a Press briefing as part of activities to mark the maiden valedictory lecture and send-off at the polytechnic’s liaison office in Yenagoa, the state capital, on Friday.
He said the only intervention that was coming to the school as of 2016 when he assumed office as the Rector was “conference attendance from TETFUND.”
He said, “The institution’s access to intervention for physical projects and infrastructure had been blocked due to its inability to properly account for previous interventions by the institution’s managers. It even got to the point when the backlog of funds were to be reallocated to other institutions.
“Also blocked was the Institution Based Research, Academic Staff Training and Development, Book Development, zonal and regular interventions, etc.”
Seiyaboh, who was flanked by the Deputy Rector, Iwekumo Wauton; Registrar, Fullpower Igeiwari and other officials, said he inherited a myriad of challenges in the school.
“State of records in the institution was in a shambles, as records, minutes of meetings, inventory of assets/liabilities, staff data, etc., were barely available or non-existent. It was so bad that if information on the institution were to go out twice within a space of one week, there was bound to be inconsistencies,” the Rector said.
He listed other problems to include low student enrollment, which was 68 for only three programmes, low internally generated revenue, paucity of funds, absence of staff motivation, hostilities between the community and the institution, unaudited accounts, tax issues and a huge debt profile among others.
Seiyaboh, however, stated that enrollment had increased to 2,500 full-time students and 200 part-time students with 17 programmes for National Diploma and Higher National Diploma approved by the NBTE even as the polytechnic now has nine PhD holders from the only two he met, while 32 and 60 others are studying for their PhD and Master’s degree, respectively.
He also said the school was no longer described as “an environment for cockroaches and lizards” as record keeping and staff motivation had improved, stressing that TETFUND and others had opened access to various interventions and physical projects were being carried out.
Seiyaboh added that he was leaving office with satisfaction because his leadership had been able to stabilize the polytechnic by resolving the teething academic and non-academic problems which stagnated the progress of the institution.
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