NECO and prudent resource management

The National Examination Council NECO is targeting remittance of N1.2 billion to the federation account by December 2018.   It has improved from N320 million remittance to more than N500 million, and prudent management of scarce resources has been the guiding principle of the Council and the Council’s books and records are open to scrutiny.   There […]

The National Examination Council NECO is targeting remittance of N1.2 billion to the federation account by December 2018.   It has improved from N320 million remittance to more than N500 million, and prudent management of scarce resources has been the guiding principle of the Council and the Council’s books and records are open to scrutiny.  

There is nothing like N15 billion corruption, the allegation is baseless and fallacious, the number of candidates who sat for NECO exams and how much the Council make is in the public domain.  

We have on the spot assessment of what the challenges are, and to set the record straight we are not running independently in terms of our budgeting. We are under strict guidance by the Ministry and National Assembly.  

Every year we provide information as to what we generate and what our expenditure is. We go to defend all these and therefore if somebody says fifty naira is missing, it’s practically impossible and totally fallacious. I am in touch with all my state officers and zonal coordinators regularly and consistently.  

In conducting our exams, we pay apprentice, people in the community to conduct the exams. We have four exams that we conduct. It is professionally and unacceptable for someone to insinuate that there is embezzlement of funds without facts. The books are there, the records are there.  

The Council just returned from the defense of our budget in the National Assembly and there is need for us to increase our remittance to the federation account which we have been working on because prudent management of resources that we have must be our guiding principle.

We therefore call on Nigerians and civil society groups to approach the Council for clarification when in doubts.  

On illegal recruitment, there have never been illegal recruitment by the council. All that we have done by way of replacement we have followed due process with clearance from both the Ministry of Education, Federal Character Commission and Head of Service. We have documented evidence of weavers and approval.  

On the internal crisis in the council the issues are with some union members. We have an open door policy and relate well with unions. But for some strange reasons a few of them have over stepped their bounds making communication directly to the Ministry without consulting with the council. Rather than settling union issues internally they have written all kinds of petitions that can be addressed internally. All those are not necessary. They should not run a parallel government because they belong to a union. The best approach is to work with the council.  

On the issue of illegal sale of guest house, the issue started in 2007 long before I came to NECO and it came to my attention when I assumed duty as CEO of NECO and I set up an administrative panel to look into the issue and the officer directly involved is on interdiction, as we speak the matter is before the EFCC.

Prof. Charles Uwakwe, Registrar of National Examination Council, NECO.