The Federal Government has threatened to sanction some federal ministries, departments and agencies involved in illegal recruitment.
According to The PUNCH,some of the agencies involved are Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Customs Service, among other MDAs.
Investigations revealed that some organizations simply replaced retired or deceased officials with friends and family while others simply issued employment letters to job seekers that were not recognized by the Federal Civil Service Commission and the Office of the Head of the Federation’s Civil Service.
But the OHCSF and the Federal Civil Service Commission were not consulted before making the replacements.
The Federal Ministry of Works caught some civil servants who were involved in employment racketeering, as The PUNCH had previously reported.
Additionally, it was revealed that the OHCSF found over 1,500 civil servants working for a ministry with false employment documents.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, confirmed this by stating that her office had identified 1,618 Federal Civil Service employees whose employment letters were either forged or illegal.
This is in spite of the government’s employment embargo.
According to reports from 2019, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation hired numerous people without carrying out the proper hiring procedures.
The National Coordinator of the NDYCN, Chuks Onuoha, described the practice as unacceptable, but the then NNPC spokesman, Kenny Obateru, denied the recruitment.
He claimed that rather than hiring new employees from outside the system, the NNPC management filled the positions with qualified individuals who were already part of the system.
However, candidates who advanced to the last stage of the selection procedure claimed the oil company replaced their names with preferred applicants.
“The NNPC replaced most of the EH positions under the guise of a hurriedly planned scheme codenamed Internal Open Resource where some people, who contracted third party staff members and did not meet the requisite experience and qualifications in the advertised EH vacancies, are being deployed through the backdoor in an unfortunate and disappointing bid to jettison the EH merit list,” the President, Transparency in Recruitment at Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Felix Sunday, had lamented then.
The Civil Service Commission announced that it would penalize ministries, departments, and organizations that used a backdoor recruitment strategy.
The Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Tukur Ingawa, explained why the employment ban by the government remained in place despite the high level of unemployment in the country.
He claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s declining revenue led to the decision to impose the employment ban.
He stated, “Working in close conjunction with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the year 2019 was the last time recruitment into the Federal Civil Service was conducted. The general suspension of employment in the Federal Civil Service was put in place in the year 2020.
“The Federal Government’s suspension of recruitment in 2020 was informed by the dwindling government revenue due to the incidence of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The chairman noted, “To answer your question, the Federal Civil Service Commission is the only body constitutionally charged with the responsibility of personnel recruitment, promotion and discipline in the mainstream Federal Civil Service; working in close conjunction with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and Ministries, Extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies.
“That is to say, it is the only body that is legally recognised to issue letters of appointment into the service. The Federal Civil Service Commission recently disseminated a statement in that regard. The appropriate agencies of government will look into these cases as they arise and the culprits will face the wrath of the law.”
