President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the probe of former managements of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), over alleged poor remittances.

This comes after the current leadership of JAMB remitted N5 billion to the government with a balance of N3 billion still to be remitted compared to maximum N3 million per annum remitted in the past.

Briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun disclosed that JAMB in July announced the remittance of N5 billion to the Federal Government which happens to be the highest so far in the last 40 years of its existence.

She said the disparity in the remittances of the two agencies in the past and now necessitated the decision to probe all the former heads, adding that despite the poor remittance in the past, NIMASA has remitted N4.95 billion in 2015 and N24 billion in 2016.

The minister also disclosed that other agencies with similar discrepancies in their revenue remittances will be probed.

“We also reported on the progress made by a number of our agencies some of whom have reported very significant increases in the amount paid into the consolidated revenue fund.

“Council discussed JAMB which recorded significant progress and NIMASA as well as others and gave us the charge to really go and look at these agencies, look in some cases the past management of those agencies and see where those agencies were leaking and to encourage agencies that haven’t done so to continue with efficiencies.

“So, in summary, the outlook is positive. We did some comparative analysis in June 2014 with the oil price of $109 Federation allocations was N844 billion and in June 2017 it was down to N318 billion, just to give you an idea of how much income the country has really lost in the last few years.

“So we are adjusting very strongly and we believe if we continue with this trajectory not only will we stay permanently out of recession but more importantly we will have a positive and growing economy what works for all Nigerians which is our aim.

“The highest amount that JAMB has ever remitted to the consolidated revenue fund before this management was N3 million. This year so far they have done N5 billion and the minister of education reported that they have additional N3 billion that they are ready to remit which will take this year’s figure alone to N8 billion.

“Now they have not increased their charges nor their fees. So the question that Council members were asking was that where were all these monies before? So the directive was given that we must call those who were the heads of those agencies and similar ones to account and that is what we intend to do. It is a similar story with other agencies and these are the leakages which we are now blocking. These are the monies in the consolidated fund that is now being applied in the projects that really needs to get the economy moving.

“These are the monies that are missing that have led us to the position we are in. It is the grandest looting that this administration action has come in to address.”

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram