The House of Representatives has brought Ministries and Agencies of government under the searchlight, over alleged employment scams. TORDUE SALEM in this report, however, hopes that this exercise will punish offenders and not pass as another exercise in legislative muscle-flexing and empty threats.
Following a motion passed a month ago, the House of Representatives' Committees on Public Service Matters, Employment, Labour Productivity and Anti-Corruption, National Ethics and Values led by Hon. Andrew Uchendu (PDP-Rivers), last week began an investigation into alleged racketeering in the recruitment into the public service.
This was as a result of public outcry against serial extortions from job seekers in agencies of government across the country. In its opening session last Tuesday, the House Committee's inquiry, opened a can of worms involving the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, and several other agencies.
The Committee at an open investigative hearing, uncovered that most of the affected Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, do not follow Public Service Rules on recruitment, but chose instead to recruit through a selective method.
The joint committees at the hearing directed the Board of the Nigerian Prisons, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDS, and the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, currently recruiting staff to stop the collection of N1,000 application fees from applicants while the board should also made refund to those who had already paid with immediate effect.
In addition, the committee also mandated the Secretary of the Board, Mr. Sylvanus Tapgun to produce the consultant handling the recruitment exercise before it today as well as the names of the bank accounts which the applicants were paying the money into, the amount so far collected. According to Uchendu, "why should a Nigerian citizen be made to pay N1,000 for a job he was not sure of getting?
This is illegal and unacceptable. In line with the resolution of the House of Representatives, the Board should stop the collection of the N1,000 and as well refund the ones already collected. Also, the consultant handling the recruitment should appear before this committee."
Trouble started when the committee asked the Secretary of NIS Board the rationale behind the collection of money from the applicants. He denied any knowledge of such development and that he just assumed office. However, one of the staff of the Board, Mr. Okhamira Anthony, who tried to whisper to the secretary was summoned to the witness box where he was grilled by the committee. He told the lawmakers that the Board was to recruit 4,556 new officers.
Earlier, an Assistant Comptroller General of the Service, Mr. Henry Malgwi had told the committee that the Service had nothing to do with the exercise and that it was the Board that was in charge.
This is coming just as the committee ordered the Nigerian Customs Service to provide it with its nominal roll and the list of all Officers enlisted into the service in 2011, their grade levels, state of origins and their qualifications following the failure of the Service to provide satisfactory answers to all the questions put to them.
In the case of the CAC, it was discovered that the commission had been recruiting its staff over four years ago based on selective and conversion process without advertising such vacancies in line with the civil service rules and regulations.
The Director of Human Resources of the commission, Hajia Laraba Shuaibu, who confirmed the development, claimed that the situation was reversed and that the usual practice was to get certificates of compliance from the Federal Character Commission before they would embark on the recruitment process in the past.
On his part, the Acting Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, FCC, Alhaji Ibrahim Lawal Funtau, accused all the MDAs and the Federal Civil Commission of not following due process in the recruitment of staff despite all reminders on the need to follow due process in line with extant rules.
On Day 2 of the probe, the joint committee rebuked the National Assembly Service Commission, for recycling its recruitment process based on an advertisement and interview it conducted in 2004.
Uchendu, who gave the order, declared that the Commission would have to explain to the public why it took them many years to complete a recruitment exercise for such a sensitive agency.
The discovery was made following the claim by the representative of the commission, Mrs. Ibikunle Mary Adegbite, that the commission made its last recruitment exercise between 2003 and 2004 but its submission before the committee, however, revealed that additional recruitments into the commission were made in 2007, 2008 and 2011 respectively contrary to her earlier claim.
When asked to explain the differences in the recruitment exercise, between her claim and the submission made to the committee and the rationale behind it, she disclosed that recruitment were being made based on the need for such and that all the subsequent recruitment that were made were based on the advertisements for vacancies that were made between 2003 and 2004.
The Acting Chairman of the FCC (Funtai) however faulted the claim of the NASS Service Commission on its last recruitment earlier put at 2004, saying that the FCC was aware that the commission was carrying out recruitment exercise which they claimed was meant for the engagement of more security personnel because of the security challenges in the country.
Funtua claimed that to follow up, the FCC approached the National Assembly Service Commission for the list of the personnel recruited but it has failed till date, to furnish it with a nominal roll (list of employees).
Adegbite while admitting that some recruitments were made in some geopolitical zones of the country which could not fill their quota during the earlier exercise, said that the action was taken so as not to short-change any zone in the sharing of appointments.
The House Committee, however, rejected the explanations and directed her and Funtua to do a memo over their claims and submit same to the committee this week.
The committee also summoned the entire Board of the NIS, Nigeria Prison Service and the NSCDS to appear before it by next week. The committee made the summons after the failure of NIS representative, Tapgun, failed to offer a satisfying explanation on the discrepancies recorded in recruitments for the service, specifically the N1,000 fee collected from applicants. But the NSCDC, on its part, denied that the corps was charging applicants for employment.
The Assistant Commandant General of the corps, Abosede Isimi, who represented the Commandant General, CG, of the corps, Dr. Ade Abolurin, while offering the clarification before the Committee, disclosed that the corps was aware of the activities of fraudsters who have been duping unsuspecting applicants, collecting money from them under the pretext of enlisting them into the corps.
He said that several arrests had been made while some have even been prosecuted and convicted. On January 16, 2013, senators discovered that an agency was allegedly selling appointment letters for N500, 000. The discovery was made following a directive from the Senate mandating its committees on Federal Character, Employment, Labour and Productivity, to investigate alleged irregularities in employment in all Ministries, Department and Agencies in 2011 and 2012.
The motion to probe MDAs was titled: "Employment irregularities in the Nigerian Immigration Service and other ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria" and sponsored by Senator Abubakar Bagudu (Kebbi Central). The Senate argued that statements from the Comptroller General of the NIS, indicated that over 4,000 employment slots were approved for the agency by the Federal Government. However, he insisted that the slots were allegedly being sold to job applicants and some allocated to various other personalities.
The Senate, however, regretted that due process involving advertisement for interested members of the public to apply was flouted. The Senate also alleged that employment letters were allegedly offered for sale for between N400, 000 and N500, 000 "by the syndicate whose operation base are in Gwagwalada, Karu and other places."
The senators also alleged that the recruitment exercise in some agencies was skewed in favour of certain sections of the country in "total negation of the Federal Character principle." Several months later, the House also adopted a motion calling for a probe, which is ongoing. The issue of employment rackets has attracted several motions in the National Assembly since 1999.
The issue, however is: Can the latest probe of the recruitment scam in MDAs yield the expected result of holding government officials behind this practice to account, or is it just another public-fund gulping jamboree.