This was revealed by Prof Dantani Wushishi, the Registrar/Chief Executive of NECO.
The National Examinations Council, NECO, has disclosed that some state governments are still owing the examination body over N2billion.
This was revealed by Prof Dantani Wushishi, the Registrar/Chief Executive of NECO.
He said this while addressing a press briefing in Minna, Niger State.
The Registrar said, “When you talk about the issue of debts, we have done a lot, we have recovered some, some states are still indebted to the Council to the tune of over N2 billion. This is for over so many years, from 2012 till date. We are making efforts and some states are responding.
“And through our efforts to make sure we solve our problems, we have a commitment with the Accountant-General of the Federation, and the states we have MoU with, we can take the MoU to the Accountant-General’s office to deduct from source, but we are very tactical about it, because we also have to sensitise the state governments to the need to keep this place afloat, and it is the payment of what they have subscribed for in the Council that will keep this place afloat.
“So we are tactically doing that, and we are getting the result and we have not yet taken any state to the Accountant General office.”
Wushishi noted further that the exam body relied heavily on money generated from candidates’ registrations for its various capital projects and other activities that related to the conduct of exams.
“From 2021 to date, to June (this year), the Minister of Finance has deducted from NECO’s Treasury Single Account, the total of N6,023,145,000.
“We also need to pursue that this money that was removed, that the 50 percent is supposed to be taken as operating surplus and give us the rest to settle our debts, so we have another battle for the reconciliation,” he added.
The NECO boss said that “In 2020, we had over 30,000 cases of exam malpractice. In 2021 we had just about 20,000, and this year and this year we have confidence it will reduce to the barest minimum. In our last BECE, the malpractice was about 600 cases, and this year it was less than 100.”