The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze, on Friday, said the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board is not producing surplus revenue.
Akabueze spoke on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast programme monitored by The PUNCH.
JAMB Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, has been applauded by many for turning around the revenue generated by the agency established by the government in 1978 “to conduct matriculation examinations for entry into all universities polytechnics and colleges of education in the country and to place suitably qualified candidates in the available places in these institutions”.
During his first term, Oloyede, amongst other reforms, has been noted to have significantly increased the JAMB remittances to the Federal Government. Under his watch, over N30bn has been said to have been remitted to the Federal Government purse, an amount far above what was generated by the Board in its 40 years of existence, before Oloyede came on board.
Asked why other agencies and departments of government haven’t borrowed a leaf from JAMB to turn around the revenues remitted to the government, Akabueze said the government is looking at plugging leakages to increase federal revenues.
He also said, “I need to clarify what exactly the situation is with respect to JAMB and my friend, Prof Oloyede has done an excellent job but first of all, it is not correct that JAMB is producing a surplus because when you say a surplus, it means you are producing over and above your revenue. JAMB’s cost for staff and all of those are still being paid for by government. And if you take the aggregate of the revenue compared to the aggregate of their cost, it is not a surplus.
“However, what has happened is that their cost having been borne by government, the revenues that they generate from their activities in the past, some individuals in the organisation would find a way of spending them on items that were not appropriated in the budget and (JAMB) put an end to that to say that government has borne our cost and if we generate this revenue, if we net out our cost that is directly attributable to the conduct of exams, the excess, the surplus over that which by government’s fiscal regulations is supposed to be remitted to the consolidated revenue fund, that we will make that remittance, that is basically what has happened.”
