Reps To Investigate 5-year Finances Of WAEC

House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the administration of public revenues and expenditures of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) from 2018 to 2023.

This was a sequel to the adoption of a motion moved by Hon. Amobi Godwin Ogah (LP, Abia) at plenary yesterday, noting that WAEC – local is fully Treasury funded from the Federation Account.

Ogah observed that the council, in addition to its statutory allocation, obtained a credit facility of N5 billion from a commercial bank in 2022. Though the credit facility was repaid within the same year, the council’s financial statement did not fully disclose the purpose of the loan.

He expressed worry that, as of January 12, 2019, WAEC had invested 2,974,510,000 units of shares worth N1.45 billion in Megatons W.A. Limited, a company that prints security and confidential documents.

The lawmaker said an additional investment of N32.2 million was made in the same year, bringing the total value of the investment to N1.48 billion as of December 31, 2019. However, the company suddenly went into liquidation, and many provisions were made for impairment of the investment in line with Internal Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS 9).

“Aware that N899,375,000 provisions for impairment were made on the total investment, representing 60 percent of the total investment. This huge loss calls for questions as to why a proper investment decision was not made ab initio.

“Also aware that the WAEC proposed expenditure for 2024 is N42.9 billion, whereas its IGR projection is N32 billion. Cognisant of the need for the National Assembly to thoroughly appropriate WAEC’s humongous IGR, scrutinise the council’s past financial statements and debt collection from state governments to avoid further wastage of public funds and contradict accountability and prudence stewardship,” Ogah added.