Leke Baiyewu, Abuja
THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board plans to build a new headquarters in the Central Area of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, for the sum of N6bn.
This was made known in Abuja on Thursday at an investigative hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts.
The hearing was on audit queries issued by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation against ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
The Director, Finance and Administration, JAMB, Mufutau Bello, who appeared before the committee, said the board has been saving N2bn annually since 2018 to raise the money and commence the project.
The head office of the examination body is presently located in the Bwari, headquarters of the Bwari Area Council.
Bello said JAMB had realised N5.5bn so far, lamenting that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the internally generated revenue of the board in 2020.
He said, “We are proposing to move our central headquarters to the Central Area (of Abuja). We have a plan of over N6bn but since we don’t collect subvention from the government for our overhead and capital (costs), every year, from 2018, we have been setting aside N2bn because our target is N6bn to be able to acquire our headquarters in the Central Area.
“The money is in our TSA (Treasure Single Account). We had a challenge in 2020 because of COVID; so, we could not realise our budget. So far, we have realised about 5.5bn.”
The Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, however, faulted the decision to keep the money idle in the account.
“You cannot keep such money idling in an account. That is poor treasury management,” he stated.
Be hard on illicit drugs, traffickers, Reps tell Marwa
In another development, the House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes has asked the newly appointed Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brig.-Gen Buba Marwa (retd.) to fight the war against hard and illicit drugs in Nigeria to a standstill.
The committee charged Marwa in Abuja on Thursday when the new NDLEA boss held his inaugural meeting with the lawmakers.
The Chairman of the committee, Francis Agbo, stated that the war against hard drugs must be won by the NDLEA under Marwa’s leadership, noting that it is a war that all well meaning citizens must engage in.
Agbo said, “It is not possible that the NDLEA can confront drug barons with all these sophisticated weapons and so, the committee will ensure funds are appropriated for the fight against hard and illicit drugs.”
Responding, Marwa noted that the security crises in parts of the country were due to the growing usage of hard drugs.
He assured the lawmakers that he would not disappoint the country in the ongoing fight against hard and illicit drugs.
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