Abuja
The Public Relations Officer of Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB), Mr. Fabian Benjamin, has restated the commitment of the board, led by Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, to root out corruption in the board.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily yesterday, Benjamin said the board was “determined to clean the system of any act of infraction and misappropriation and enthrone sanity and accountability.”
Reacting to widespread rumour of a snake swallowing N36 million in its Benue state office, he said: “This particular staff was saddled with the responsibility of selling scratch cards and she sold scratch cards amounting to N36 million, misappropriated this amount and when she was queried and investigated on what she did with the money, all she could say was that she kept it in the vault in the office and a particular snake came and swallowed the money. Of course, we won’t believe that kind of story. She has undergone all disciplinary processes; a report has been written and forwarded to the appropriate authority. Very soon she would be meted with appropriate sanction and handed over to the security agencies for recovery of the public funds.
“Before the present administration took effect in JAMB, the board was operating a regime of scratch card which created room for malpractices and infractions which necessitated the introduction of PIN vending system where proper accounting system will be implemented and public funds accounted for. “For any agency that wants to vend the PIN, such agency must have made advance payment to the board’s TSA account thereby preventing any temptation of embezzlement.”
Benjamin lamented the lacuna the scratch card era created which made room for sharp practices that led the board to record humongous deficit.
“With the abolition of scratch card system, it will be difficult for any staff to have access to the board’s funds. The board remitted N7.8 billion to the public till. Why we were able to remit such an amount was part of the measures put in place by the current registrar. He has ensured that all loopholes are blocked. We wouldn’t have achieved that if the era of scratch card was not replaced with PIN vending.”
