Christiana Ekpa writes that the rot being exposed in the House of Representatives’s Ad hoc committee led by Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi investigating alleged job racketeering in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as reported infractions in implementation of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS), will take President Ahmed Bola Tinubu high level of doggedness, determination to tackle the dirty deals rooted in the system.
Very recently, it has been weeks of one dramatic revelation to another in the House of Representatives.
Just as it is on record that Nigeria has one of the highest unemployment rates in Africa, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS). This includes that Nigeria’s unemployment rate stood at 33.3 percent in the last quarter of 2020 while the rate of unemployment among youths was even higher, at 42.5 percent.
The NBS further said that as of the time the figures were released, under-employment was put at 22.8 percent and youth unemployment was at 21.0 percent.
However, KPMG, a multi-national consulting firm, in a release predicted that Nigeria’s unemployment rate will hit 40.6 per cent in 2023.
“Although the National Bureau of Statistics recorded an increase in the national unemployment rate from 23.1per cent in 2018 to 33.3per cent in 2020.
“We estimate that this rate has increased to 37.7per cent in 2022 and will rise further to 40.6 per cent in 2023“, said KPMG in its Global Economy Outlook report for first half of 2023.
The scarcity of job means that unemployed people can go to any length to secure a job while top officials in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), take advantage of applicants, exploiting them both financially and morally.
Worried by this unhealthy situation, the House of Representatives set up ad hoc committee led by Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi which commenced investigation on alleged job racketeering in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as reported infractions in implementation of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS), which has been tagged with one dramatic revelation or another.
The resolution of the House to probe MDAs followed a motion sponsored by former Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Wole Oke, prompting the House to mandate the Ad hoc committee under the leadership of Yusuf Gagdi to investigate the alleged cases of job racketeering in MDAs which includes the reported manipulation of the IPPIS, a scheme introduced to weed out the perennial practice of ghost workers taking emoluments from government coffers through deeply rooted syndicates.
In some instances, job seekers are allegedly offered phantom jobs, enrolled into and collect salaries from the central Federal Government salary payment platform, Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
There have also been reported cases of financial fraud and several underhand dealings in the implementation of the IPPIS, a scheme many pundits inferred to be a good one on the paper, but unfortunately left very susceptible to manipulations in practice.
Number of MDAs involved
While in the opinion of many analysts, the issues of job sales and other forms of racketeering have almost become a norm in the Nigerian civil service, the House of Representatives committee investigating the matter, said during one of its sittings that it had received petitions against 39 MDAs.
Chairman of the committee, Gagdi named some of the MDAs to include the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Budget Office of the Federaion, IPPIS, Federal Civil Service Commission and more, assuring that the committee would however engage about 600 MDAs with a view to unearthing the level to which cases of malfeasance in the federal civil service have gotten.
The commencement of the ongoing investigation, majority of commissioners representing states of the federation at the FCC took turns to accuse Chairman of the Commission, Muheeba Farida Dankaka of breaches in operational and undue interferences in recruitment processes, resulting in counter allegations against the Commissioners by Dankaka, who said the fight was a case of “corruption fighting back”, her attempts at introducing reforms with the intent to correct extant abnormalities within the system.
Dankaka at another sitting of the committee alongside Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan alleged that some persons were forging her signature to issue recruitment letters to people.
A witness, Abdulmalik Isa who was offered an opportunity by the investigating committee to speak, said he was a victim of the alleged racketeering through the Commission. He said one Haruna Kolo, a personal assistant to Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, gave him employment which was later withdrawn by Dankaka.
Dankaka however insisted that Mr Kolo is not his personal aide but a staff of the IPPIS, who was seconded to the FCC, adding that she only appointed him as the protocol officer of the Commission.
“When we got there, I found out we don’t have a protocol (officer), somebody that should be in charge of our travelling. I requested the secretary to give us somebody. Haruna Kolo had been in the FCC for more than 10 years before we came. And then they gave us Kolo to be with us so that when we wanted to travel, somebody would be at the airport.
“Surprisingly, we later learnt, not more than three weeks now, that Kolo is the IPPIS desk officer in our office, unknown to me. The letter that went out, they forged my signature. Kolo is not my PA, I was not the one that brought Kolo. Kolo is part of them (Commissioners opposing her)”.
Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Yemi-Esan in her submission denied the allegations made by the FCC commissioners that Ms Dankaka usually demands 10 percent of all employment vacancies in federal MDAs, even as she accused some of the MDAs of breaching employment waivers given by her office, either in the category of staff members requested, or above the number for which such waivers were granted.
Also speaking, especially on the over-bloated federal civil service, Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabuaeze, lamented the wage bill of the federal government, occasioned by the huge number of staff members. He disclosed that the wage bill which was about one trillion naira in 2015 has risen to about five trillion naira today, warning also that government must learn that it is not a direct job creator.
“As of 2016, when I became director general of the Budget Office, the office had 500 people. We determined that we didn’t need 500 people. So over the last seven years, we have come down from 500 to now 318. Not only have we not recruited, we have significantly reduced our numbers and managed the personnel cost of the government, which as of 2015 was about one trillion naira.
“Today, it is over N5 trillion. And so as much as we desire to depopulate the growing number of unemployed people in the country, the reality is that the government is not really a direct job creator,” the DG said.
Accountant General of the Federation during the investigative hearing said her office was working hard to fish out ghost workers, who existed in the system before the introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Denying allegations that her office was engaged in the enrolment of ghost workers for personal gains, she said her office was working hard to address problems with the IPPIS. “Having realised that this is a system that needs to be reviewed, on my assumption of duty, I met a series of issues around IPPIS and that made me organise stakeholders with all the service providers around the IPPIS, where the service providers came and made presentations, questions were asked.
“The stakeholders’ meeting ran for two weeks where all the service providers were scheduled for each day and came with their technical hands while the technical team of the OAGF were also on ground where we were discussing a series of issues about the system”, she said.
The Director of IPPIS, Emma Deko, alleged that some universities were sending more names than required to be captured on the system. “We are all aware of the issue of ASUU. We were told to enrol them and the enrolment did not pass through the normal process because it was an ad hoc thing. It was an emergency. They refused to come on board.
“But when the government persuaded them to come on, we were asked to enroll them without going through the process. So I want to place on record that some of them were given numbers to enroll, to enroll people who were on their payroll prior to that time.”
As revelations continued before the panel, the committee was to issue expanded summons to critical persons it needed testimonies from. Those invited were the Accountant General of the Federation, past chairpersons of FCC, Director General of AMCON, and Mr Kolo, who was accused by the FCC Chairman of issuing forged employment letters in her name. The committee also invited the Nigerian Army, Navy, Airforce and the Police as well as heads of the intelligence agencies, and more others.
Chairman of the panel, Gagdi had expressed displeasure over failure of some of the invitees to appear, saying “Let me say this to all agencies we have invited, I think we need to read their names clearly here. They are the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, the Nigerian Communication Commission, the Nigerian Post Services, the Nigerian frequency management Council, Galaxy backbone, National Identity management Commission.
“Nigerian Correctional Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Fire Service, Nigerian Police Force, Defence Intelligence Agency, State Security Service, national Intelligence Agency, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Airforce, Nigerian Navy must appear tomorrow since they have failed to appear… This is the ruling of the committee”.
Controversial Kolo appears
The most desired man the committee and more Nigerians want to hear from, Haruna Kolo appeared before the committee and gave his own side of the story. While admitting that monies were obtained in exchange for employment, he insisted that only acted on the instruction of the FCC boss, who fronted for.
He said “when she (Dankaka) came to Federal Character as the executive Chairman, she appointed me as a protocol officer which I carried out my duty diligently. On the allegations of job racketeering, the FCC Chairman instructed me to liaise with one Mr Shehu who is a personal driver and PA to the Taraba state commissioner. As a desk officer, am responsible to take whoever is employed to IPPIS for capturing no one can go there without a letter from the Chairman or Human Resource officer of FCC.
“When she came, she wrote a letter to the Accountant General instructing that no letter from FCC should be honored except she signs the letter. So when ever there were new employment, she signs, give to me and I take to the Accountant General’s office for capturing.
“Shehu is the one that brought those who paid monies to my account for job, some paid N1million others N1.5 million all to my personal account, my Ecobank account. She asked me to give cash to her which I did through POS so there is no evidence of transfer or anything.
“On the allegation of working at seven places, I was never at anytime involved in seven jobs, they are making the allegation based on assumption.
“The second allegation on my subsequent employment to AMCON, that was as a result of her personal favour to me, we were four in number, she gave the appointment letter to myself, Kadijah, Olushola, we all proceeded for interview at AMCON headquarters Abuja after which we were called upon for training on the 16th January 2023, after the training, I and Olushola were called to Lagos. Unfortunately, Kadijah who is the Chairman’s biological sister was rejected, The Chairman accused me of been responsible for her rejection.
“I see no reason why the Chairperson will make allegations of such magnitude to my humble self. I have been threatened even at gun point and had to leave Abuja. Sir I want this committee to know that after this sitting if anything happen to me the FCC chairperson should be held responsible, ” Kolo noted further.
Dankaka was however to swear with a copy of the Holy Quran, that she never collected any money through Kolo.
The investigation is nowhere near conclusion at the moment. One sure thing however, has been the repeated promise of chairman of the investigating panel, Yusuf Gagdi that the committee will leave no stone unturned in getting to roots of the matter. Will the probe therefore produce the expected outcome? This remains the question that only time will provide answers to.
