SUBEB Takes Over Payment Of Teachers Salary In Cross River, Distributes Chairs, Furniture To Schools

By CrossRiverWatch Admin

The Chairman of the Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr. Steve Odey has disclosed that the Board would soon commence bio data capturing for all primary school teachers in the state to determine those who are qualified to be on the state pay roll.

According to to the SUBEB Chairman, the capturing has become necessary following the approval by the state governor for the Board to take over the payment of primary school teachers salaries from the next academic year.

While breifing newsmen in Calabar on Monday, Odey said the Board is also set to begin distribution of books and furnitures to the various primaries schools across the state as part of the effort to improve learning and grades.

He further disclosed that the Board has taken delivery of 75,000 textbooks and 17,200 plastic furniture from contractors while more are still to come.

The Board also received four Hilux vehicles and a Prado Jeep as support to ensure effective monitoring of schools across the state.

He said, “As I speak to you, the Board has taken custody of 75,000 textbooks from our contractor and we are left with only 10,000. We have also taken delivery of 17,200 plastic chairs out of the 50,000 that we are expecting.

“We also received four new Hilux vehicles and one Prado jeep for effective monitoring of schools in the 18 Local Government Areas of the state,’’ he said.

On how the Board has been awarding contracts for jobs they are executing, he said “The board has N7.5 billion counterpart funds from the Federal and State Governments kept in the Bank. Payment for any contract must follow due process and certification. So, contrary to spurious publications in the media orchestrated by detractors, I do not have access to SUBEB money.

“We advertise for our jobs in an open bidding process. We have just completed analysis of 37 jobs which we advertised for and once all processes are done with, the contracts will be awarded. Here, we tried as much as we can to be very transparent in whatever we do, and our activities are open to public scrutiny.’’