Breaking : How Federal civil servants milk suffering job-seekers despite employment

According to The PUNCH, more problems in the country’s troubled ministries, departments, and agencies have been exposed by the recent investigation into allegations of employment fraud in the civil service amid a ban on employment that was put in place by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari imposed a hiring freeze on all federal government agencies and departments in May 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

A memo from the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation states that Buhari suspended recruitment because of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the government’s revenue forecast. However, it was stated that employment waivers would be granted to ensure that workers who had retired or passed away would be replaced.

Buhari instituted a similar freeze on public sector hiring in 2017, claiming it would help him better control personnel costs that were projected to increase by 12 percent that year.

The federal government made sure that all government workers were enrolled in the IPPIS (Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System) so that the ban could be monitored effectively.

When asked about the IPPIS’s effects, Folashade Yemi-Esan, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, recently said that the system had helped in the detection of civil servants with fake employment letters. During a 2023 civil service week media Q&A, the top government official mentioned IPPIS’s role in identifying overpaid government workers.

“The system was bedevilled with considerable leakages and wastes as well as the incessant infiltration of ghost workers etc. prior to the introduction of the current mechanisms put in place to drive the implementation of the IPPIS,” she said.

Ghost workers and racketeering of jobs have thrived in the civil service despite reforms, employment bans, the introduction of mechanisms, and employment waivers.

Former aide Haruna Kolo has recently admitted to selling federal employment slots to job seekers on the orders of his former boss, Muheeba Dankaka, who chairs the Federal Character Commission.

Kolo made the admission while testifying before an ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives looking into racketeering in government jobs.

According to Kolo’s testimony, Dankaka ran a money-collecting scam targeting people looking for work.

According to him, Mrs. Dankaka insisted on a cash-only transaction to conceal any digital footprints.

The FCC Chairman has asked me to speak with Mr. Shehu, the Taraba State commissioner’s driver and personal assistant, about the allegations of job racketeering. As a desk officer, it is my duty to transport all new hires to the IPPIS for processing and capture. Without permission from the FCC’s chairman or Human Resources officer, no one is allowed to visit.

When she arrived, she instructed the Accountant General to disregard any correspondence from FCC unless it bore her signature. So, whenever there was a new hire, she’d sign the appropriate paperwork, hand it to me, and then have me take it to the Accountant General’s office so that it could be captured.

Shehu is the one who delivered the people who paid for the work to my personal account at Eco Bank. Some paid N1 million, and others paid N1.5 million. She asked me to give her cash, and I did so through the POS system, so there’s no paper trail,” he explained.

As payment for his work, Kolo claims the chairperson offered him and three others positions at the Asset Management Company of Nigeria. He revealed that Mrs. Dankaka’s brother is among the lucky recipients.

There are currently allegations that Dankaka has been corrupt, nepotistic, and conceited in his administration of the commission. The majority of the accusations are being made by fellow commissioners.

Earlier, some commissioners claimed that Dankaka had demanded a percentage of employment slots from MDAs; she denied the claim, calling it an example of “corruption fighting back.”

In her defence, Dankaka acknowledged that her decision to end the commission’s practise of selling positions shortly after taking office was met with resistance from some of her fellow commissioners.

She boasted, “I was famous before I even came here. I’m no longer poor. Permit me to share a brief tale with you. Some commissioners are attacking me for valid reasons. They were all my friends and family when I first started working there. They all seemed to spend a lot of time in my office, but I consistently declined their requests.

“As executive chairman, I have to keep some things to myself because I am a private person. There are bitter truths I must face head-on and surrender to God’s care. They were selling off (job) slots before I even got here. It felt like you were in a market. If you doubt me, you can always ask locals in Abuja.

When I first arrived, I had a meeting with all of the commissioners to express my aversion to anything that could endanger my loved ones and me. They can all testify to my credibility.

The chairwoman claimed that a commissioner bought land and offered to pay for it with job openings, but she foiled the deal.

Chairman of the House Investigations Committee Yusuf Gagdi has pointed out that no government agency has been charged as of yet.

“Neither the JAMB registrar nor any other institution has been indicted by this committee. After we turn in our report, then you can make such a statement.

“We had a very good conversation with him, and no one should rush to judgement and call someone out before this committee makes its decision.”

Following Kolo’s confessions, Chairman of the House ad hoc committee Yusuf Gagdi has invited no less than 40 ministries, departments, and agencies to participate in the investigation into employment racketeering in the civil service.

Gagdi did point out, however, that only four MDAs actually accepted the invitation.

Most of these organisations do not recognise the legitimacy of legitimate government. Gagdi commented on the absence of MDAs at the investigative hearing held on August 9, 2023, saying, “We are supposed to have the presence of 40 agencies, but only four are here.”

Gagdi elaborated by bringing up the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to shed more light on the “lopsided” employment practises of some MDAs.

The lawmaker who filed the challenge against JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede claims that more than 300 people were hired by JAMB without first posting job openings publicly.

Gagdi has accused JAMB of failing to give Nigerians the opportunity to apply for open positions when they arise, and he has demanded that the agency immediately submit to the committee, the list of all persons employed between 2015 and 2023.

He claimed that the documents available to the investigation panel showed that the examination body had simply filled job openings without conducting proper procedures, such as shortlisting and interviewing candidates. He went on to say that the examination body had hired people using waivers rather than following the law’s mandate that no more than 100 people be hired each year.

He went on to say that hiring 300 people through a waiver was against the federal character principle and that such an exception should only be made in the event of an agency’s imminent dissolution.

If you think commercials would have been effective, tell me what evidence you have. You can evaluate prospective employees and hire the best people for the job. I inquire as such because putting an end to waiver-related fraud is our top priority,” he explained.

“We used the waiver because we believe the exigency of the time and the nature of our work deserves it,” Oloyede said in his defence. We couldn’t accomplish our goals without the 300, but recruiting them would be too expensive and time-consuming.

To paraphrase, “I assure you that we did not shortchange those who are qualified,” and “I believe very strongly that it was very very necessary that we recruited at that time,”

A whistleblower who exposed employment racketeering in a Federal Government ministry almost lost his job in 2022, according to published reports. Also in 2022, a number of disgruntled job-seekers petitioned the Senate, claiming that the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission had denied them the opportunity to complete any necessary paperwork despite having provided them with letters of employment. Former Ondo State deputy governor Agboola Ajayi signed one of the petitions claiming that jobs at the interventionist agency were being sold for varying sums of money, depending on the applicant’s family’s means.

During the investigation, Toyin Madein, the Accountant General of the Federation, testified that she and her staff were actively seeking out “ghost workers” who had been part of the system prior to the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.

She denied claims that her office had been enrolling “ghost workers” for financial gain and claimed that it was instead working hard to fix issues with the IPPIS. After realising that IPPIS is a system in need of review, I convened a meeting of stakeholders, including representatives from all IPPIS service providers, at which the latter gave presentations and fielded questions.

She explained that the meeting lasted for two weeks and that each day, different service providers were called in to discuss various issues with the system alongside the OAGF’s technical staff.

IPPIS Director Emma Deko claimed that some schools were submitting more names than were necessary to be recorded in the database. The ASUU problem is not lost on anyone. We were instructed to enrol them, but since it was ad hoc, we skipped the formal enrollment procedure. It was a dire situation. They flat-out refused to board the ship.

However, when the government finally convinced them to sign up, we were asked to enrol them without first completing the necessary paperwork. So, I’d like it on record that some of them were given enrollment numbers to enrol people who had already been working for them.

Lawmakers in the House have vowed to get to the bottom of this, and their investigation into the matter is ongoing.

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