Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Ministry of Education, yesterday, explained why it was yet to take a decision on the suspended Registrar of National Examination Council (NECO), Prof. Charles Uwakwe.
Uwakwe was suspended by NECO Governing Council in May for alleged job racketeering, award of contract without due process and several other administrative issues.
The Council was asked to quickly set up a committee to investigate the allegations and submit its findings to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Sonny Echono, told our correspondent in Abuja that the committee submitted its report to the minister few months ago.
He said the report revealed high-level corruption that was perpetrated by the management of NECO.
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“The corruption or identified fraud might not have been supervised by the suspended NECO Registrar but he had all the opportunity to make adequate corrections. The same thing was going on in JAMB until the appointment of Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who initiated transformational policies that brought an end to the era of scratch card fraud in the institution. Loopholes were covered resulting in improved transparency and accountability in the activities of JAMB.
“Notwithstanding, because of the weight of the findings particularly as regards scratch cards, the committee’s report was referred to some government agencies like Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and some others for professional input.
“All the contacted agencies have made their submissions except for two others which I can’t mention to you. Once they make their submissions, the government will take appropriate action and also make it public,” he said.