Job Racketeering: Reps receives petitions to probe 39 MDAs

•Summon IPPIS desk officer, Haruna Kolo over extortion

By Christiana Ekpa

The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating alleged jobs racketeering by Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) says it has received petitions against 39 MDAs over allegations of job racketeering and other infractions.
The House of Representatives investigating MDAs, equally summoned the IPPIS Desk officer in the Federal Character Commission FCC, Haruna Kolo as well as Isah Ahmed all of the IPPIS to appear before the lawmakers on Friday alongside the Federal Character Commission.
This is just as the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF) Folashade Esan, indicted desk officers of Integrated Payroll and Personnel information System(IPPIS) in Ministries Department and Agencies of Government for perpetrating fraud in recruitment exercise.
The Chairman of the committee, Yusuf Adamu Gagdi who stated this in an opening remarks at the resumed sitting of the Committee on Monday, also gave the summoned after the chairman of the Commission, Farida Dankaka exposed that Haruna Kolo has been fingered in illegal employment and extorting money from the teeming populace.
Gagdi said, some of the MDAs include the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Office of the Head of Service, Budget office, IPPIS, Federal Civil Service Commission and others.
The chairman said the committee would in line with it’s mandate engage over 600 MDAs to unearth the extent of the malfeasance in the federal civil service.
Recall that at the last sitting of the committee on Wednesday, there were allegations and counter allegations between the Chairman, Federal Character Commission (FCC), Muheeba Dankaka and some commissioners over job racketeering.
On his part, the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF) Mrs Folashade Esan, has indicted desk officers of Integrated Payroll and Personnel information System(IPPIS) in Ministries Department and Agencies of Government for perpetrating fraud in recruitment exercise.
She however denied getting 10 per cent job slots from MDAs
Esan said this whike appearing before the House of Representatives committee investigating job racketeering in MDAs and mismanagement of IPPIS in Abuja on Monday.
She said many MDAs violated waiver in job recruitments exercise, adding that she also discovered that some IPPIS staff were perpetrating evil in MDAs.
She said once the HoSF discovered such foul play in enrollment, it immediately informed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
She said aside reporting such officer, the HoSF immediately swung into action by commencing disciplinary action against those officers, adding that several officers had been disciplined for perpetrating such.
Rep. Wole Oke (PDP-Osun) a member of the committee had posed a question to the HoSF, asking if it was true that the HoSF get 10 per cent of job recruitment allocation from MDAs.
in her response, Esan said, “I want to categorically state that the HoSF render service to MDAs and we do not request such percentage from any MDAs.”
“The first time I heard it, I asked the director in charge that I must not hear such thing any longer and that if they are doing it before I came it must not happen again.
On the issue of waiver for employment, Esan said the HoSF often go round to monitor such, adding that though the HoSF could not be in every establishment but it ensure proper monitoring.
According to her, all we do is to monitor to ensure they have not exceeded waiver. We ensure that IPPIS does not enroll unless they have approval from Federal Character Commission, HoSF and the Budget office.
She said some MDAs were in the habit of employing more than the waiver given, but added that the HoSF always ensure that it was difficult to enroll them on IPPIS as a mechanism to checkmate such MDAs.
“Many agencies have violated waiver and we have discovered that some IPPIS staff are perpetrating evil in the MDAs, once we discovered foul play in the enrollment we inform ICPC and start disciplinary measure against those officers.
“ We have several officers that we have discipline for perpetrating fraud in MDAs.”
She said when the HoSF gave universities waiver for recruitment, it often discovered that school usually prioritised non academic above academic staff.
She added that the National University Commission agreed with her that such instance was becoming a big problem.