From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Federal Government has added the National Examination Council (NECO) on the list of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that remits 25 per cent of its generated revenue to government coffers.
NECO Registrar, Dantani Wushishi, who made this known in Minna, during a press briefing to mark one year in office, lamented that the decision has taken a toll on the examination body’s activities.
He said: “From 2021 to date, to June (this year), the Federal Ministry of Finance has deducted from NECO’s Treasury Single Account, N6,023,145,000.23. Ideally, 50 per cent of the money was supposed to be operating surplus, while the rest are used to settle debts.”
Asked on the issue of debts owed to the council by some state government, Wushishi revealed that NECO has recovered parts of the money, but lamented that over N2 billion still remain unpaid.
He said: “We have done a lot on debt recovery. But some states are still indebted to the council to the tune of over N2 billion. This is from 2012 till date. We are making efforts and some states are responding.
“We have a commitment with the accountant general of the federation, and the states that we have memorandum of understanding (MoU) with. We can take the MoU to the accountant general office to deduct from source, but we are very tactical about it, because we also have to sensitise the states government on the need to keep NECO afloat, and it is the funds from subscription and other incomes that will keep NECO afloat. So, we are tactically doing that and we are getting the desired result. We have not yet taken any state to the accountant general office.”
Nevertheless, he said NECO was able to made great success in all its activities in the last one year that he had piloted its affairs.
