The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, says it would continue its practice of remitting the constitutionally-mandated proportion of its operational surpluses in line with extant government’s directive which was reiterated recently by the director of Budget Office.
The board noted in a statement by its Spokesman, Dr Fabian Benjamin, that it is a known fact that all unutilised funds by ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, should be returned to the public treasury.
“The Board and public-spirited Nigerians are at a loss as to the reason for the various campaigns of calumny being mounted by some individuals who feel that these remittances should not be made.
“The Board reiterates that it is not within the powers of MDAs to determine the uses for which the remitted funds are put to. Theirs is to comply with extant directive while those given the mandate to manage the national treasury have the responsibility of appropriating and channeling such remittances, in the overall interest of the public, to identified areas of need or rather whichever area of the national economy that they perceive to be in most need of resources.
“Perhaps, it is the novelty of such remittances that is jolting the Board’s critics from their complacency. It would be recalled that the humongous remittances are the first in the history of the four-decade-old agency,” the statement said.
JAMB recalled that the first landmark remittance was made in 2017 and the feat was repeated in subsequent years in line with its belief that rules are made to be obeyed and, at any rate, the Board does not believe it should hold onto money that does not belong to it.
“It might interest these armchair critics that a direct fallout of the remittances was the decision of the Federal Government to reduce the cost of the purchase of the e-pin from N5,000 to N3,500, the cheapest globally.
“It is a truism in policy making that, certain trends should be observed over a period of time before policy pronouncements are made. Hence, the decision to reduce the price of application documents was contingent upon the observation that even if the price were to be slashed, the Board would be able to conduct its examination unhindered.”
