The House of Representatives’ Committee on Finance has queried the National Examinations Council over the sum of N636,778,000 unremitted in 2019.

The committee grilled the Acting Registrar, Ebikibina Ogborodi, and other top executives of NECO at an investigative hearing on Wednesday.

In his presentation, Ogborodi said NECO had an operating surplus of N1,278,462,493, of which the examination body was to remit 80 per cent or N1,022,769, 994 to government coffers.

He, however, said only the sum of N385,991,627 was remitted.

The acting registrar blamed the non-remittance on debts owed by some state governments.

“The balance is because some state governments who did the examinations have yet to pay,” he said.

Ogborodi said Zamfara State was the highest debtor with N1,022,234,000. Others are Adamawa (N281,455,500), Kano (N240,043,000), Gombe (N7,214,150), Bornu (N40,027, 675) and Niger (N234,453,157).

The NECO boss said the examination body had written to relevant authorities to help with the recovery of the money.

The Director of Finance and Account, NECO, Jacob Ekele, also disclosed that the council was still using a manual system to run its accounting operations.

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The committee, consequently, placed NECO on status inquiry and directed that all heads of admin and account departments in the 36 states, plus the FCT, should appear before the committee on July 13 with all relevant documents on finances.

The Chairman of the committee, James Faleke, who was not satisfied with the explanation, said, “We will block your account; we will only release money for exams. Any money you will need will be after our reconciliation. The accountant general will be the chief accountant of your agency until a proper standard and a scientific method is established where anybody can be assured that you are doing a good job.”

Faleke asked the NECO management to come back in two weeks with all relevant documents on its finances.

He said going by documents in the position of the committee, the sum of N636.7m being revenue generated from 2019 internal exams alone had yet to be remitted into the federation account.