Staff audit: 18 FCTA officers for compulsory retirement

By Stanley Onyekwere

As fallout from the recent biometric exercise embarked on by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), a total of 18 officers allegedly found culpable of age falsifications and certificate forgery are to be compulsorily retired.

The development is one of the highpoints of the outcome of the recent biometric exercise carried out by the FCT Administration on staff data irregularities.

This is coming on the heels of the interim report of the implementation committee of the recommendations submitted by the firm that handled the biometric exercise, which established and confirmed 18 cases of age falsification/certificate forgery.

A statement signed and issued yesterday by Chief Press Secretary to the FCT Minister, Muhammad  Sule, said the minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, approved the compulsory retirement of the affected 18 officers.

According to the statement, the minister also directed that further clarifications and assessments on 11 officers with pending remarks as well as 59 officers who are yet to respond to the queries sent to them through their respective Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDA’s).

Also, Mohammed further directed that the Implementation Committee carry out thorough certificate verification of all staff employed from 2006 to date, including all certificates acquired from 2006 by serving officers to date.

“He instructed that the salaries of 156 officers that were verified and cleared be restored with effect from the date of stoppage of their salaries,” the statement quoted the minister.

Peoples Daily recalls that the FCT minister had revealed that the administration pays N3.6 billion to its 28-000 workforce, a huge wage bill, which he said prompted the administration to embark on a biometric exercise.

 Specifically, out of the 25,246 officers who participated in a biometric staff audit meant to fish out possible ghost workers in the FCTA, the salaries of 3,296 officers with various observations regarding their records of service, age and academic discrepancies in their official records were stopped in October 2013, pending clarification of queries against them.

Aside ordering stoppage of their salaries, the minister disclosed that steps would be taken to integrate and administer the salary payroll of all the SDA’s in the FCTA from its Treasury Department.