By Paul Effiong, Abuja
House of Representatives Committee on Basic Examination Bodies yesterday grilled the Head of National Office of the West African Examination Council, WAEC, Nigeria, Josiah Dangut, over a N6 billion deficit the agency incurred in 2023, at an investigative hearing.
Dangut was accompanied by the Registrar; Angus Okeleze, Senior Deputy Registrar; Victor Odu, Acting Director of Finance; Segun Jerumeh, Deputy Director of Finance, WAEC.
Dangut provided the cashbook of the Agency to the Committee, but they declined, insisting that it must submit its bank statements.
A member of the Committee, Awaji-Inombek Abiante, described WAEC as uncooperative, saying they must be held accountable.
“WAEC Nigeria was an uncooperative witness in this process, shielding and denying Nigerians of having value for whatever investment the country has had in that office should submit to this committee in furtherance of this investigation all the bank account statements of his office”, he said.
The Committee was piqued that out of eight submissions demanded from the examination in a bid to probe their expenditure, it only submitted one, which was the nominal roll.
The Committee Chairman said they had to explain how WAEC generated N34 billion in 2023 but spent N40 billion.
He also wondered how the examination body could approve a loan of up to N5 billion when even a Ministerial Board could not approve such amount.
He queried the WAEC Head about how many students participated in the 2022 elections that they got the calculators for.
The Committee demanded that WAEC must provide the expenditures that have led to the N6 billion deficits and all correspondence related to the purchase of customised calculators.
