More damning revelations of alleged corruption perpetrated by Professor Is-haq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) have emerged.
Professor Oloyede have come under scrutiny of alleged mismanagement, abuse of office and contract frauds running into billions of naira.
The Registrar has been accused of violating the Single Treasury Accounts (TSA) guidelines, with accusations of huge sums of monies being regularly moved from the JAMB TSA through the personal accounts of allies of the Registrar.
For instance, it was gathered that a payment of the sum of N168 Million from the TSA was made into the account of the Board’s DFA, Mr. Mufutau Bello in the first quarter of 2020.
Mr. Mufutau Bello subsequently made a withdrawal with 16 cheques of N10 Million each over the counter. This transaction attracted excess bank charges of about N5 Million for drawings above the legal limit of individual withdrawals.
The balance of about N2 Million was later moved by him to one of his other account.
In another instance, N120 Million was moved from the TSA through the account of Mr. Mufutau Bello with Remita Ref. 213517901 of 8/3/2018.
“There were several other such transactions, all of which violated the guidelines on the operation of the Treasury Single Account.
For instance, the sums of N1.2 Million and N350,000 were moved through the accounts of JAMB PRO Dr. Fabian Benjamin and Fasasi Adebayo Suberu, both in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility with Remita Ref. Numbers 269805452 of 1/4/2019 and 272420107 of 24/5/2019 respectively,” a letter of complaint addressed to the minister of Education, Adamu Adamu stated.
The Independent Corrupt Practice & other related offences Commission (ICPC ) the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC ) , Chief of Staff to the President, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Accountant-General of the Federation, among others were copied in the petition.
The letter reads further, “We can authoritatively confirm that monies moved out from the TSA in the name of Advertisement and Publicity in the past five years through the account of JAMB’s spokesperson Dr. Fabian Benjamin.
It will interest the Honourable Minister to know that over half a Billion Naira must have been incurred on Advertisement and Publicity alone during the first five years Professor Is-haq Oloyede, spent at JAMB.
“This is a clear departure from what obtained under the previous administrations.
One cannot help but ask why the sudden, sharp increase in payments for Advertisement and Publicity.
For instance, while N27,120,933 was incurred in 2016, the amount incurred in 2017 as reported in the year’s Audited Financial Statements was N130,233,565, while N110,126,103 and N109,582,833 were spent in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
“Let us point out that the extracts of some of these transactions indicating the Remita reference number, dates of the transactions, names of the beneficiaries and the purpose of the payments are attached on the last pages of this letter ANNEXURE 3.
Most of the payments were reportedly made under the guise of Supervision of Examination, Corporate Social Responsibility and Cash Advance, and they run into hundreds of millions in naira.
We submit that the payments violated the TSA Guidelines and the limit set by the Financial Regulations on granting of advance.
The real purpose for which these funds were moved need to be established by your good office, as we have very strong feelings that they may have ended in private pockets.”
Professor Oloyede is also accused of violating the Public Procurement Act of 2007 in the procurement of IT Infrastructure.
It was gathered that the Registrar of JAMB in January 2019, on the recommendation of his DFA Mr. Mufutau Bello and in violation of the Public Procurement Act 2007, approved and credited the accounts of each of his 37 State Coordinators and 7 Professional Test Centres with N2.2 Million for purchase of computers.
This transaction amounted to N96.8 Million, and the process resulted in a number of the offices procuring fairly used and fully depreciated computers.
This medium gathered that one of such instance is the case of Kaduna office under the then Coordinator, Mr. Ibrahim Maska.
While Mr. Ibrahim Maska was expected to purchase new Dual View Monitors at the rate of N35,000, he bought used and fully depreciated monitors which cost less than N8,000 per unit at the time.
On this particular item alone, over N250,000 was diverted to private pockets.
Ridiculously, Mr. Ibrahim Maska was later promoted to the rank of substantive Director, Human Resources at JAMB.
A number of the computers that were purchased by the Coordinators reportedly malfunctioned upon installation, which necessitated additional post-procurement cost, despite the colossal amount already invested.
Also, in the year 2019, Professor Is-haq Oloyede reportedly approved and credited N5 Million to each of the accounts of a number of Directors with directive to them to spend no more than N3.5 Million to buy their official vehicles.
The beneficiaries of these payments all ended up buying old and fully depreciated Toyota Salon vehicles, popularly known as ‘‘tokunbo’’.
Government vehicle is depreciated over a period of 4 years at the rate of 25% per annum.
From the perspective of fixed assets’ documentation, this implies that any new vehicle that is more than 4 years in use from date of purchase is nothing but a scrap.
According to the petition, “the above actions were in violation of Section 2921 & 2922 of the Financial Regulations, Section 24 of the PPA 2007 and the Federal Treasury Circular TRY/A1 & B1/2019 referenced OAGF/CAD/026/V.III/343 dated 30th May 2019.”
The JAMB boss is also accused of engaging illegal recruitments of 500 staff in two years.
Professor Is-haq Oloyede, allegedly recruited a total of about 200 staff in 2018 and about 300 staff in 2021 without following the expected due process, such as public advertisements for equal opportunities for Nigerian jobseekers.
The petition also reads, “In furtherance of the plans for unmitigated execution of the pre-conceived violations, the experienced hands in the Finance and Accounts Department at JAMB were all redeployed to outstations by the Registrar.
This left only few capable hands, with the DFA acting as the Sole Administrator of the Department without any Deputy Director.
This has been the situation for over 3 years, despite the fact that the Board has four (4) Deputy Directors who are in the Accountant’s Cadre and who are either Chartered with ICAN or Certified by ANAN.
With only junior and middle-level officers working with the DFA over the years, the necessary knowledge transfer and growth on the job is negatively affected.
The DFA alone dictates what happens, and anyone who expresses opinions that contradict his view is seen as being disloyal and posted out summarily.
Staff members are known to have been posted out for expressing professional views on financial transactions.
“The above development has reportedly caused a number of infractions and violations in the operations of Finance and Accounts Department, as experts and professional opinions which would have strengthened its activities are lacking.
For instance, in the Annual Tax Returns presented to each State Inland Revenue Service, PAYE deductions are often times wrongly credited to the wrong states where some staff members had never worked.
A particular instance of this was the 2017 Tax Return for Kogi State.
While the State had less than 30 staff, the returns made for the office comprised of 73 staff with the implication of under remittance to some States while some others were credited in excess.
This can potentially give rise to a Back-Duty Investigation by the States’ tax authorities at any time for recoveries from JAMB.”
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