Reports say almost all federal ministries, departments and agencies have been carrying out illegal mass recruitments,
Many
government parastatals including the Central Bank of Nigeria, the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Federal Inland Revenue
Service, and the Nigerian Prisons Service, among others have been dogged
by recruitment scandals which they have vehemently denied.
A
document obtained by our correspondent showed that following a review
carried out by the Ministry of Finance, 183 out of 185 MDAs had
recruited 13,780 staff in recent years.
Out of this number, 6,917
were recruited without any formal approval; 2,314 were employed by
seven universities with governing council approval; only while 4,549 had
correctly obtained approval from the Office of the Head of Service and
Federal Character Commission.
The review showed that out of the
185 agencies, only the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army sought
approval for their recruitment.
Following this discovery, a
report prepared by the panel was forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari
before he travelled to the United Kingdom for medical treatment asking
that the MDAs be ordered to follow due process.
It was gathered
that the President ordered the Office of Secretary to Government of the
Federation to carry out an investigation, while also placing a ban on
recruitment without approval.
One of the officials involved in
the recruitment told SUNDAY PUNCH that under the pretext of replacing
workers that had either resigned or were given the boot, the 183
agencies carried out mass recruitment without following due process.
The
official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t
authorised to speak to the press said, “The worst culprits are
universities, hospitals and the Nigerian Prisons Service.
One
university in Nasarawa recruited 800 people without due process while
another hospital hired 200 without approval. Sources in the government
told SUNDAY PUNCH that illegal hiring makes it difficult to sanitise the
payroll and control personnel cost.
A senior government official
said a lot of nepotism was involved and added that the illegal
recruitment was one of the reasons there were regional imbalances in
employment of civil servants.
“More important, the recruitment is
without reference to budgetary provisions, hence leading to the risk of
unpaid salaries and the need for virement which increases payroll
cost,” the official stated.
Explaining how the illegal
recruitment are carried out, the source stated, “For example, if a
director who earns N300,000 monthly should retire, the agency will bring
in six people at the cost of N50,000 per month which they use in
replacement of the retiree. So, they will have six workers that were
never needed. They call it replacement and spread these slots to
politicians. But it’s killing the civil service.
In some cases, the slots are sold in exchange for six months’ pay from those recruited.”
It
was further gathered that apart from the probe and ban ordered by
Buhari, the President approved that the Budget Office should be more
involved in recruiting people to work in the civil service.
The
source added, “The SGF and the Head of Civil Service were told to issue
circulars on recruitment. The minister of finance also recommended that
the procedure should be amended to require a clearance letter from the
Director General of the Budget Office to confirm budgetary provision for
any planned recruitment.”