The Senate has threatened the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning with a warrant of arrest if the Director, Cash Departments fails to appear to provide sensitive documents related to the disbursement of Service Wide Votes and missing N113 million on salary adjustment for Joint Admission Board Matriculation, JAMB.

Speaking on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, in Abuja, Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South), stated that the threat became imperative over the absence of the Director who has ignored three invites.

Urhoghide said the Committee had written a letter of appearance to the Ministry on 20th of October, 2022, and the letter was received on 21 October, 2022 by the Ministry.

The ministry was also to give details of release to all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, including Police and Armed Forces.

According to him, another letter was written to the Ministry on December 8, 2022, on the issue concerning missing N113 million of salary augmentation for JAMB.

Meanwhile, the office of Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) told the Committee that the N113 million was released to JAMB in May 2017 for salary augmentation.

The representative of JAMB, Director of Finance and Administration, Mufutau Bello, told the Committee that the N113 million was not released to them, just as he argued that if the money was released, it would have cut across the whole year.

According to him, it would cut across all MDAs using CONLESS. If there is a shortfall in May, it will spread to the whole year.

Not happy with the development and frequent shunning of the Committee by the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance and the Director, Cash Management of the Ministry, Senator Urhoghide then gave the Permanent Secretary 48 hours to appear and provide the relevant documents to the Committee or face warrant of arrest by next week.

… approves N559,080,711,000 for NCC

Meanwhile, the Senate, on Tuesday, approved the 2023 budget of N559,080,711,000.00 for the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.

This was sequel to the presentation of the report by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Oluremi Tinubu (APC, Lagos Central).

The NCC 2023 budget of N559,080,711,000 is made up of total recurrent expenditure of N86. 7 billion, total capital expenditure of N5. 2 billion, and special projects of N35 billion.

In the report, the Commission is expected to transfer N416 billion out of the projected revenue, to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The Senate also passed the Universal Service Provision Fund 2023 budget of N16 billion, which is made up of N2. 4 billion recurrent expenditure, N124.8 billion capital expenditure, and projects expenditure of N13. 4 billion.

JAMB Remitted N27.2 Billion To Federal Account In 5 Years – Registrar

From 2017 to 2022, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, remitted N27.2 billion to the Federation Account as operational surpluses, Registrar of JAMB, Prof Is-haq Oloyede has said.

The registrar said the board spent N9.7 billion on capital projects within the same period.

He disclosed this at the ongoing 3-day workshop for Public Relations’ staff of the Board at its headquarters in Bwari, Abuja in conjunction with Premium Times Academy with the theme: ‘Media, publicity and public relations In the modern age.’

He disclosed this at the ongoing 3-day workshop for Public Relations’ staff of the Board at its headquarters in Bwari, Abuja in conjunction with Premium Times Academy with the theme: ‘Media, publicity and public relations In the modern age.’

In a presentation delivered by the Director, Legal Services, Dr Abdul Oyedokun, the registrar said the board remitted N7.8 billion in 2017; N5.2 billion in 2018; N3.76 billion in 2019; N4 billion in 2020; N3.5 billion in 2021 and N3 billion in 2022.

The Registrar said the board has secured the approval of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu to establish an A Level data to curb the issuance of fake Advanced (‘A’) level certificates to candidates to enable them to secure admission into tertiary institutions.

He said the data bank would ensure the sanctity of the entire admission process.

According to Oloyede, the data bank would ensure all ‘A’ Level results were registered under one platform to bring about the standardization and integrity of the certificates.

Oloyede disclosed that over 47 proprietors of the Interim Joint Matriculation Board Examination, IJMBE, and the Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board, JUPEB, have so far been arrested for issuing fake ‘A’ level results.

According to him, the minister approved the establishment of the ‘A’ Level certificates data bank, alongside several other measures to ensure total sanity in its examination processes.

The JAMB chief listed some of the measures including; the deployment of sophisticated biometric technology to curb multiple registration in Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.

He said: “In the last one year and in the second coming of Professor Oloyede as registrar of JAMB, one of the major assignments we did here was to focus on some the things that are happening in these JUPEB and IJMB.

“During the last exam we called a stakeholders meeting and invited managers of these organs and we asked some questions. We also collaborated with other security services to spread our net across the country to see what is happening and lo and behold more than 47 proprietors of these, some of their lecturers and teachers, and people conniving with them in perpetrating malpractices were arrested all over the country.

“Arising from that, the Honourable Minister of Education has graciously approved the establishment of A Level data bank. So for example, in a particular university, 90 percent of those who presented their ‘A’ level results for admission were found to be fake.”

Oloyede, who noted the inability of candidates to carry out multiple registrations due to its evolution from an analog entity to a digital entity in terms of registration, said it was the reason behind the current drop in UTME registration.

Fabian Benjamin, the JAMB’s head of public affairs and protocol, charged the Board’s Public Relations staff to leverage on the training to do more in the discharge of their duties amid the surge in citizen journalism.

He said: “Today’s media has changed the dynamics of influence and put power in the hands of the ordinary people. PROs must now engage in the conversation through various new channels and tools. Hence the need for this workshop which is aimed at building and maintaining the positive image of JAMB in the face of smear campaigns and misrepresentation of the activities of the Board.

“PR officers are often the first contact for individuals or organisations seeking to reach out in an informed way. They address inquiries from the media and other parties as well as track media coverage and promote industry trends.

“As the music changes we must change dance steps or else risk dancing out of tune. Nowadays, the exclusivity enjoyed by mainstream media has come to a halt. Journalistic endeavours by non-professionals, also known as ‘citizen journalism,’ heralded the influx of user-generated contents which seem to compete with contents from the mainstream media in terms of speed, ease, accessibility, and availability of use.”