Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyode, disclosed in Benin, Edo State, yesterday, how the examination body has stopped collecting capital and overhead budgets from the Federal Government.
JAMB, said Oloyede, has been so self-sustaining in the last two years that the examination body can pay staff salaries without government help.
Oloyede said this when he briefed newsmen in Benin City, on JAMB’s proposed plan to partner other security agencies in the conduct of its examinations.
“When you ask me what were they doing with the money before, I was not there.
“So, I am not in position to tell you what they were doing. The one I know, is that government gave me an assignment. I have done the assignment; the surplus must be returned to the owner of it. That is what I know.
“So, some persons are raising questions, are we money generating? My answer is, are we money wasting? Do you get the point?
“Must we go and steal the money simply because the money is there? So, at times, I do not understand the logic of some persons. They preferred that the money is generated and wasted.
“The first thing we did, when we came in, was that government should not give us capital vote again.
“They used to collect capital vote and overheads, from government but we stopped it. Just fund yourselves, except for salaries and we will be happy if government even stopped the salaries.
“Except for salaries, we do not collect but, for the last two years, we have stopped capital and overheads because we believe we did not need them.
“And, if after spending of capital and overheads, we still have surplus of billions, do people want us to waste the billions or to steal it?
“So, that is why I am surprised that people are making noise that we are generating money. If you say we are increasing the charges, I can understand but, we are not doing so,” said Oloyede.
The registrar refuted claims that JAMB examination questions are usually hacked into by some unscrupulous elements before the examination proper.
“As far as JAMB is concerned, I have not found any case of a breaki-in. No matter how clever they think they are, we are ahead of them. One of the reasons why I led a delegation here, myself, is to see whether there is any evidence of break-in.
“You can ask any of the security agencies handling the matter, they will tell you. We have not been able to find one case of success.
“What we are treating are attempts…”