Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Acting Registrar of the National Examinations Council (NECO), Abubakar Gana, has confirmed that the council returned about N1 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Account of the federation as operating surplus from its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
He said the reforms initiated by the council as well as transparency and accountability in its official dealings led to the operating surplus that was returned to the Federal government.
The NECO who boss appeared before the Senate Committee on Basic Education for NECO’s 2019 budget defense, said the council had managed its resources prudently and might soon depend less on allocation from the federation account.
Gana solicited the support of the lawmakers to achieve the feat.
The NECO registrar expressed his desire to expedite action on the reforms being carried out in NECO, assuring the lawmakers that the 2019 budget of the agency would be judiciously implemented.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the committee, Aliyu Wamako, on behalf of committee members commended NECO leadership for effective deployment and utilisation of resources allocated to it for the conduct of examinations across Nigeria.
Wamako openly extolled the leadership of the exam body for remaining steadfast in ensuring prudence in the agency.
He confirmed that the leadership of NECO returned unused overhead allocations into the consolidated account in its 2018 budget.