House seeks schools fumigation before resumption

The House of Representatives has asked the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, to ensure that all schools in the country, whether public or private are fumigated before they are reopened.

They also urged the Minister to reach students in the rural areas with the online teaching which was recently introduced to keep the students busy.

The Chairman House Committee on Education, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere, in a letter to the Minister, said all schools (public and private), should sensitize their pupils/students adequately on the dangers of COVID-19 and its attendant consequences and possible ways of protecting themselves from being infected.

The House said the resolutions reached should be incorporated into plans by the Ministry before re-opening the schools in order to “prevent our pupils/students from being infected with the virus”.

The House said further “we want to further direct the management of schools to make provision for water/borehole with a view to promoting washing of hands and personal hygiene among the pupils. Clear instruction should be issued to schools to avoid all contact sports till further notice. For the time being, all social/extra-curricular events should be suspended. These should include excursions, birthday celebrations.

“Disinfection of shoes and feet should be strongly encouraged for each classroom as done in poultry pens with appropriate non- corrosive solution. Emphasis should be placed on the minimum number of pupils/students in a class in strict adherence to social distancing procedure/ prescriptions. There should be procurement of infrared thermometers, face masks and hand sanitisers for pupils and Teacher’s use before entering School.”

Buhari approves sack of suspended NECO registrar, Uwakwe, four others

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the termination of the appointment of Prof Charles Uwakwe as the Registrar and Chief Executive of the National Examinations Council.

The President’s directive was conveyed in a letter, dated May 11 and signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, on behalf of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.

President Buhari also dismissed four members of the Management for various offences bordering on financial impropriety.

Mr Abubakar Gana had been appointed as the acting Registrar of the agency since 2018 when Uwakwe was suspended.

In the letter, Uwakwe was accused of violating the Public Procurement Act (2007) and pursuant to PSR 030402 and Part 1 schedule 4 (i) of NECO Establishment Act.

Uwakwe had been suspended since May 2018 by the Fedeal Ministry of Education, the parent ministry of the agency over alleged financial mismanagement and abuse of office.

It was alleged that Uwakwe and some top officials of the council allegedly awarded contracts in the council to the tune of N25billion without following due process.

NECO, in a release on Wednesday by its Head of Information and Public Relations Division, Mr. Azeez Sani, confirmed that the suspended registrar had been relieved of his appointment by the President, while four members of the management had also been dismissed.

The letter said: “After due consideration of the investigative panel on the allegation of unsatisfactory conduct levelled against you and some management staff of the council, Mr. President in exercise of his powers, has approved your removal as the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of National Examinations Council with effect from the date of your suspension from duty.”

The former Registrar was also directed to hand over all the government property in his custody to the acting Registrar, Mr. Gana.

In another letter, FME/S/1419/C.3/T/98, on May 11, by the Permanent Secretary, the President approved the dismissal from service of four Management workers.

JUST IN: FEC approves N1.33Bn projects for Plateau Varsity, Customs

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved proposals by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, for projects worth over N1,348,057,600.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House Correspondents after the week’s FEC meeting, which was held virtually.

Giving a breakdown of the approvals, the Minister said while the Ministry of Education security an approval for the construction of the Health Faculty at the Plateau State University, Bokkos (PSUB), at the cost of N610, 355, 221.82, as well as a N114, 357, 600 project for the procurement of furniture and other equipment.

“The Minister of Education today presented a memo seeking approval of council for the award of contract for the construction, equipping and furnishing of a faculty of Health Sciences in Plateau State University, Bokkos and It was awarded at the cost of N610, 355, 221.82 and the completion period is for 52 weeks.

“Also, a procurement of furniture and equipment was awarded at N114, 357, 600 and completion period is 12 weeks”, he said.

He said further that the FEC approved the proposal brought by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning for the procurement of computers and printers for zonal and area commands of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at the value of N623, 700, 000.

“The Minister of Finance presented a memo for the award of contract for 1, 200 units of coloured printers and desktop computers for human resources and accounting management systems across zones and area commands of the Nigeria Custom Service, which was approved.

“The sum of the contract was N623, 700, 000 for the 1, 200 desktops and computers for the use of the custom Service all over the country,” he said.

1,180 ASUU members fail BVN test, says Fed Govt

The war of words between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), over the Integrated Personnel Information System (IPPIS), is getting hotter.

The Federal Government has revealed that ASUU members underpaid Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Tax running into billions of Naira over the years.

Reacting to criticisms from ASUU over discrepancies on recent salary payments, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) on Monday disclosed that “the rate of tax being applied by tertiary institutions was not correct, leading to underpayment of PAYE Tax.”

The OAGF noted that because of the underpayment, “state governments made claims on the Federal Government to pay the differential arising from underpayment of tax by these institutions.”

Bowing to pressure from the state governments, the OAGF said that the “Federal Government has paid several billions on behalf of these institutions because of their underpayment of the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Tax.”

The OAGF categorically told ASUU that “the request by the tertiary institution unions to formalise tax evasion through Integrated Personnel Information System (IPPIS) is not only untenable, but also an unpatriotic request to violate extant laws on tax.”

Regarding the demand for Bank Verification Number (BVN) from ASUU members before they can be paid, the OAGF said that about 1,180 ASUU members “failed the BVN test and details have been forwarded to the universities for the necessary correction and update.”

According to the OAGF, “BVN as a way of confirming all account numbers of the tertiary institutions that are sent to IPPIS were forwarded to the relevant agencies for validation and confirmation”, but over a thousand ASUU members bungled their information.

With regards to non-receipt of salaries after others have been paid, the Accountant General said “this arose because the names on the payroll are not in uniformity with the names in the bank. Employees are expected to update their bank details in conformity with names on the payroll, as effort to change payroll names in the banks is not allowed, except where there is a change of name as a result of marriage.”

The IPPIS platform, the OAGF said, “does not recognise joint accounts operated by two or more persons. Every salary payment is personal.”

On the alleged payment to dead university workers, the OAGF noted that “the institutions deliberately forwarded to IPPIS the list containing dead ASUU members as being part of their personnel, to get more personnel fund.”

According to the OAGF, “it is the responsibility of the institutions or agencies to inform the IPPIS office about death, resignation or exit from service before due date. We sent payroll analysis to the tertiary institution bursars for review of any omission or names to be excluded.”

On payment of allowances and salaries, the OAGF argued that “any other salaries and allowances approved by any other agency in Nigeria, which are not formalised by the Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (SIWC), will amount to illegal payment.”

Therefore, the OAGF urged ASUU and other unions to understand this.

“The fact that they arm-twisted their institutions to pay them these allowances does not translate to legality.”

Commenting on payments for sabbatical visits and adjunct lecturers, the OAGF stated that “payment of sabbatical aid visiting lecturers is duly recognised by IPPIS, but it is dependent on furnishing the IPPIS with the particulars of such lecturers, including his IPPIS number, his primary institution, the start date of the sabbatical or the visiting and the end date.”

The government, it said, “recognises the fact that all workers on sabbatical are entitled to 100 per cent of their salaries as sabbatical allowances, while visiting and adjunct lecturers will enjoy 50 per cent of their salaries as visiting allowance.”

The OAGF warned ASUU that “government will no longer incur unnecessary expenditure on pension, NHIS or such allowances that are not part of universities pensionable salaries.”

Imo tops JAMB malpractice list

Imo State leads 31 states and the FCT on the examination malpractice list of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for the 2020 United Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

JAMB’s Public Relations Officer Dr. Fabian Benjamin told The Nation that some of the 195 candidates on the list had already been arraigned for offences like examination by proxy, double registration, attempt to cheat, connivance to cheat, unruly behaviour, and smuggling of electronic device into examination hall.  He however noted that the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the process

“Some of them have been arraigned and others were waiting to be arraigned before the COVID-19 lockdown,” he said.

Anambra had the second highest number of candidates on the list (16), while Enugu, Kaduna, and Kano had 15 perpetrators each.

At the bottom of the list with the fewest offenders were Adamawa, Sokoto, Gombe and Yobe which had only one each. The FCT recorded three offenders while Lagos had nine.

Four commercial banks offer varsity scholarships to top 100 UTME candidates

Four leading commercial banks in the country have offered free scholarships to first 100 candidates that wrote this year’s unified tertiary matriculation examinations.

The banks are offering the top 100 UTME candidates scholarships to study in tertiary institutions of their choice across the country.

The list of the 100 candidates that came top of the UTME would be forwarded to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board this week for action, The Nation learnt.

The Head of Information of JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, confirmed the offer to our reporter in Abuja on Monday, adding that some candidates would have the opportunity of their names appearing on the lists of the four banks because of their UTME scores.

However, Benjamin failed to give the names of the banks, saying the commercial banks have asked that their identities be kept secret.

He said the scholarship offers were a demonstration of the acceptability and confidence in the board’s products.

Dr. Benjamin said: “About four banks have indicated interest to sponsor top 100 candidates. Two banks have requested for top ten and two for top hundred candidates.

“We will submit the names of the candidates to the banks this week.”

He explained that the conduct of the 2019 UTME had witnessed a dramatic turn of events with many startling discoveries and the capacity of the board to navigate such emerging threats.

“As a result of the handling of the crises and performances, many corporate organisations have called on the board to furnish it with top scoring candidates to offer scholarships to study in tertiary institutions of their choice.

“There are banks which are demanding the top 100 UTME candidates for scholarships. This is a stamp on the approval of the board’s products and efforts at repositioning the conduct of public examinations in Nigeria.

“The fight against examination corruption should therefore be fought on all fronts. This is because of the board’s belief that the first manifestation of corruption is cheating in an examination,” he said.

Benjamin urged corporate organisations seeking for UTME candidates to sponsor to vary their stipulated conditions for scholarships.

“Otherwise the same 10 top candidates would benefit from multiple offers, thus depriving other equally qualified candidates the fruits of sponsorship,” he said.

He added: “In this regard, a proviso that the board should provide top scorers who must not have benefitted from any scholarship programme will address the challenge and spread the benefits to other deserving candidates.

“These organisations, including the candidates, are to, however, note that scoring high in the UTME alone is not a guarantee for admission as other factors such as the Ordinary Level results and the post-UTME will have to be incorporated for a holistic cut-off score.”