The National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA) 2016 Annual Assessment Report has disclosed that the Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science and Technology, with campuses in Makeni, Magburaka and Port Loko Northern Sierra Leone, has expended a total of Le5,616,255,545.
According to the report, nine of the procurement activities, which constitute 82%, were for goods and 2, which constitute 18%, for works.
The report furthered that there were eleven contracts awarded through an open procurement method, totaling Le 5,616,255,545. Most of the activities under review, according to the report, were unplanned as established by law, whiles funding was mainly done by the Government of Sierra Leone. It could be recalled that, since the inception of the University some few years back, bringing together the former Port Loko Teachers College and the Northern Polytechnic of Makeni together under a single University with administrative offices in Magburaka, much was yet to be actualized in terms of really getting what is required of a University.
Many a time, the Student Union has gone on strike actions, asking for the setting up of a University Court that would arbitrate student matters and other related issues. With barely few days to his exit from office, Ernest Bai Koroma used his party’s final rally in Makeni to officially commission the University and its University Court.
Speaking to the Nightwatch Newspaper, a very seasoned educationist has stated that the hasty setting up of institutions, in the north of the country in order to score political goals, was not in the best interest of education.
The quality of the products of these institutions would not benefit the country. He opined that it is better to have few institutions that would produce quality students. Most of these hastily created tertiary institutions are plagued with financial and human resource challenges across the country which, in turn, makes their creation unnecessary.