The Senate at the plenary on Wednesday resolved to investigate former registrars of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board over the alleged low revenue remittance, while they were in office.
The probe, The Punch gathered, would also be extended to the National Examination Council and the West African Examination Council.
The resolution followed a point of order raised by Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi-West), who said JAMB’s revenue had appreciated significantly under a new administration and asked that the transactions of former registrars of NECO and WAEC be probed.
Melaye said, “I want to bring to the attention of the Senate that it has been declared that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board made internally generated revenue of N5bn in 2016 and they improved on that in 2017 by generating N7bn. Before then, remittance from JAMB to the Federation Account used to be from N500m to N700m.
“I am bringing it to the attention of the Senate that since JAMB has showed that they can remit N7bn, then we can encourage our relevant committees to work on NECO and WAEC that have wider financial status. WAEC and NECO have more people writing their exams than JAMB.
“We can make more money as a people and as a country if there is proper oversight and if the corruption pipes in those two places are blocked. My intention is to bring this to the attention of the Senate and the presiding officer can ask the relevant committee to please take this up.”
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in his remarks, asked the Chairman of the Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), Senator Aliyu Wamakko, to educate the lawmakers on the examination bodies and their revenues.
The Majority Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, however asked that former registrars be quizzed on why the revenue of the board was low under their leadership.
He said, “I just want to add something that will enhance the motion by Senator Dino. If someone was posting only N500m all those years and another person came in and started bringing in N5bn, something was amiss. So, we need to find out what happened in the past. So, I think the committee should look at why we were getting N500m and someone is now giving us N5bn.”
Saraki referred the matter to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, directing them to brief the Senate next week.
He said, “It is a good observation, the fact that JAMB has now gone up to billions. Before, we were doing millions. The question is: what happened in the past? Why is the sudden increase in their revenue? What actions have been taken by those who were there before to explain this? I think there is the need for us to not just sweep this under the carpet.”
