NECO owing FG N6.6bn in 2yrs

From Jonas Ezieke, Abuja

The House of Representatives Committee on Finance on Wednesday said that the National Examination Council NECO is owing the Federal Government of Nigeria FGN up to the tune of N6.6 billion in two years alone.

Chairman of the House Committee Hon. James Faleke made the disclosure when the examination body appeared before the Committee to present its report on annual revenue earnings and remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation.

Faleke and other members of the Committee had grilled the Director of Finance of the agency Mr Jacob Elekebe on the 2014 and 2015 audited accounts of the agency where it was uncovered that it owed the government N6.6 billion in the two years under investigation.

The Committee had also noted that NECO only remitted N6 million  to the federal coffers in 2014 out of N6.181 billion it received from the sale of examination forms to 841,000 students and other incomes.

At the investigation, Faleke said:” You generated N6.181 billion and gave the federal government N6.1 million. It means you spent N6.1 billion to conduct the examinations”

He asked that the agency do find the equation of the figure of the remittance from the revenue it generated so that the examination body can justify the mathematical question it sets for students.

However, the Director of Finance who represented the Executive Secretary of the agency said that its revenue generation efforts is stalled by the huge debts owed it by state governments.

He said that nineteen (19) state governments are currently owing the agency for examination fees it conducted for their students and particularly lamented that Zamfara state is main culprit owing them on it.

Nothwithstanding,the Committee Chairman said that the agency should go back and reconcile its accounts records with the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and re-appear before it on March 4,2020.

For a better society