The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, generated at least N30.726 billion in five years, however, remitted only about N15 million to the Federal Government.
The amount was generated from the various registration fees for candidates who sat for JAMB’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) from 2011 to 2015.
Over seven million candidates, who sat for the UMTE within the five-year period, paid between N4,000 and N4,600 each for registration.
The Federal Government had, about two weeks ago, ordered a probe of past heads of JAMB, along with other agencies over “poor remittances.”
Minister of Information KemiAdeosun, who informed journalists about the probe, said this year, JAMB remitted N5 billion to the FG with another N3 billion ready for remittance.
Adeosun said JAMB had in the past years remitted an amount not exceeding N3m yearly.
This means between 2011 and 2015, JAMB remitted only N15m to the government. Daily Trust also reports that JAMB collected a budget average of over N2bn from the federal government each year within the 5-year period.
However, a senior official working with the board said billions of naira was the generated since the introduction computer-based tests in 2015, but the monies were not remitted to the treasury due to gross mismanagement of public funds and systematic looting by top officials.
“The money spent in test administration reduced drastically with the introduction of computer tests because there is no need to pay contractors involved in paper-pencil tests.
So, billions were saved from 2015 to date but top officials embezzled the money. They remitted N13 million to the government in 2013 and that was the highest amount until 2015 when N5 billion was sent to the treasury,” he said.
The official said he was not aware whether or not the investigation ordered by the government had started. “You know how government does its things. It has to follow processes; I am not sure if the investigation is on,” he said.
