Reps probe JAMB financial records

THE House of Representatives on Thursday mandated the committee on Basic Education and Services to investigate the financial affairs of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB from 2007 till date.

The probe will cover earnings from prospective candidates and remittances made to the Federation Account and report back within six weeks for further legislative action.

The House resolution followed a motion sponsored by Honourable Segun Alexander Ademola, entitled, “need to investigate the remittances of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB into the Federation Account from 2007 till date”.

The lawmaker in his motion said that, “the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, while evaluating the performance of government agencies recently, announced that for the first time in its 40 years of existence, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB remitted the sum of N5 billion into the coffers of government, with a balance of N3 billion still to be remitted, amounting to N8 billion with nine months of the tenure of the current management of JAMB”.

Quoting media report, he said that, “between 2011 and 2015, JAMB earned at least N30. 726 billion from registration fees by candidates who sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, but remitted a meager sum to the Federal Government, which, within the period, allocated over N2 billion yearly from the budget to the board”.

According to him, “the Accountant General of the Federation had, in response to a Freedom of Information, FOI request by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism, stated that JAMB remitted N11,522,808 in 2011, N25,303,274 in 2013 and N13,926,402 in 2014 but did not make any remittances in 2012, 2015 and 2016 respectively”.

He also observed that, “the total amount JAMB remitted to the Federation Account between 2010 and 2016 is N50,752,484, which is about 1 percent of the amount the agency remitted to the Federal government in 2017 alone”.

The remittance of such an amount by a non-focal revenue generating agency, he said, underscores the importance of transparency in the administration and management of government business and desirous of the urgent need to beam a searchlight on other government agencies to guide against flagrant misappropriation of public funds with a view to promote probity in governance.