- As FG formally bans post-UTME
The Federal Government owes some major oil marketers N16billion outstanding subsidy and bridging claims in the first quarter of 2016.
Details of the debt claims are contained in the 2016 first quarter unaudited financial results of four petroleum marketing companies filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
An analysis of the financials of the four oil marketers listed on the NSE showed that N8bn was outstanding subsidy claims and another N8bn bridging cost was incurred by the government between January and March.
With respect to subsidy claims, fuel and lubricant marketer, Forte Oil Plc, said it had outstanding N7bn while Total Nigeria Plc said it was owed N1bn subsidy claims by the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) for petrol imported in the first quarter.
The federal government, last month, paid oil marketers a total of N48.2bn as the outstanding subsidy claims for 2015.
While marketers without tax liabilities were paid in full, those indebted to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) were denied payment. The government, however, did not disclose the identities of oil marketers not paid.
Amounts receivable from the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) with respect to bridging claims as at March 2016, according to the companies’ filings, were: Total N5.9bn, Mobil Nigeria Plc N1.3bn and MRS Oil Nigeria Plc N977.8m.
Some of the marketers, however, admitted that negotiations were ongoing in respect of settlement of their bridging claims.A spokesman of the PEF, Mr Goddy Nnadi, said that payment of claims were ongoing.”The bridging scheme is kind of a revolving door,” he said.
“They (marketers) are loading products in every depot. And once they load, there is an invoice, meaning that we owe them. And once they deliver, it will be processed and then we pay them.”
In the meantime, the Federal Ministry of Education on Monday in Abuja clarified its position on the scrapping of the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
A statement issued and signed by Ben Goong, the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations in the ministry, quoted the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, as saying that the ban was with immediate effect and directed all higher institutions to comply with the directive.
The statement said: “The ban is with immediate effect, and under no circumstance should any institution violate the directive.
“The responsibility for admission into public tertiary institutions lies solely with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and under no circumstance whatsoever, should anybody or institution take over that responsibility by proxy.
“For the avoidance of doubt, any educational institution after secondary education is regarded as a tertiary institution.
“Therefore, all tertiary institutions, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, Universities or by whatever name it is called after secondary education, must be subjected to admission through the JAMB.”
The statement said at the end of probationary admission by JAMB, the candidates could be screened for final admission.
It said any institution with a shortfall in admission could revert to JAMB for supplementary admission.
According to the statement, screening in this case entails only the verification of certificates of the candidates, JAMB scores and any other physical examination to ensure that such candidates are not cultists.
It said: “After this, the candidates are qualified for matriculation.
“Such screening should be at no cost to the parents or students and should be done upon resumption, in order to avoid unnecessary travels in search of admission.”
It said the clarification had become necessary in order to clear the doubt in some quarters regarding the real stance of the minister.
NAN recalls that Adamu recently raised concern over the post-UTME test being conducted by various universities.
He said: “As far as I am concerned, if the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing, the universities should not be holding another examinations.
“If the universities have any complain against JAMB, let them bring it and then we address it.
“But if JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted test, then there will be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admission.”
The statement further quoted the minister as saying that there had been no empirical evidence to show that since the inception of post-UTME, universities had been having better quality students.
It said students were still being expelled on a yearly basis for low performance even as they gained admission through post-UTME.
According to the statement, Adamu is concerned about the plight of parents who spend fortunes on transportation and sundry costs just for their wards to gain admission into universities.
It further said that the minister was mindful of reported cases where some staff of tertiary institutions took advantage of the girl-child in her quest to gain admission into the system.
The statement said the minister had directed the National Universities Commission and appropriate departments in the ministry to communicate the directive to relevant agencies and institutions, to ensure strict compliance.
Adamu was quoted as having said: “Those who have already advertised for the conduct of the Post-UTME under any guise should stop the exercise immediately as any university caught conducting Post-UTMNE will face appropriate sanctions.
“If any tertiary Institution has already conducted Post-UTME, such an exercise stands annulled and money taken from such candidates must be refunded immediately.”
Shipping Position with additional report from Upshot
