Hunger Looms As FG Suspends Salaries Of Over 3,000 Civil Servants, Gives Reasons

…ICPC Investigates 100 Petitions On Recruitment Scam

The Federal Government has suspended the salaries of over 3,000 Civil Servants employed between 2013 any 2020 for failure to appear for verification.

The development was revealed on Tuesday by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan during the National Policy Dialogue held at the headquarters of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission.

The HOS who gave the keynote address spoke on the theme “Entrenching Transparency in Public Service Recruitment in Nigeria”.

She further revealed that in the last one year, 1,000 Civil Servants with fake letters of appointment were detected in one ministry alone.

Recall that in 2019, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, released a report that said 32 per cent of Nigerians gave bribes to enable them secure employment into the public service.

She said, “It would be recalled that in March last year, the Office was informed of the detection of fake letters of employment presented in some Ministries. For
instance, in the past year, in one Ministry alone, over 1,000 individuals bearing fake letters of appointment were detected.

“In the light of the aforementioned, it is disheartening to point out that the office recently received a report from the Federal Civil Service Commission forwarding the names of over 500 persons in various MDAs in possession of fake letters of appointment and which are to be delisted from the IPPIS Platform.

“Following the outcome of the Service-Wide Verification Exercise for officers recruited from 2013 – 2020, the Federal Civil Service Commission has also requested the suspension of the salaries of over 3,000 officers across the MDAs who failed to appear for the exercise pending further clearance.”

Yemi-Esan said her Office has taken decisive steps to nip in the bud the alarming sharp practices and acts of impunity being perpetrated on the IPPIS, as well as to purge the system of all infiltrations.

According to her, the FG desires to block financial leakages from high personnel costs caused by ghost workers in the system.

She further revealed that by the end of March, 390,000 officers were enrolled on the IPPIS payroll.

She said, “As at March 2022, over 390,000 officers are on the IPPIS payroll being 66,000 and 320,000 for core and non-core MDAs respectively. This figure is without prejudice to the military, paramilitary and universities.

“Accordingly, the office commenced activities towards the implementation of the Human Resource (HR) Module of IPPIS with a view to bridging some of
the identified gaps.

“Following the successful completion of the verification exercise in the core MDAs, officers who failed to get verified have had their salaries suspended.

“However, the office is carrying out a mop-up exercise in the core-MDAs for those who were not verified. As part of our control mechanisms, we are presently conducting IPPIS Human Resource (HR) Verification Exercise for the Employees of Non-Core Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) in batches, starting with Abuja after extending our earlier deadline for the closure of the IPPIS HR Verification Portal.”

According to her, the entire exercise will cover MDAs in all the geo-political zones of the country.

She noted that it is expected to end with a Mop-up Verification Exercise across the non-core MDAs in September 2022.

“Thus, this would enable the office to derive a verified list of officers on IPPIS,” she added.

Speaking earlier at the event, the Chairman of the ICPC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, lamented the impact of indiscriminate recruitment on the Nigerian budget.

He said “Indiscriminate recruitment has impacted budget such that government personnel wage bill has continued to rise geometrically almost doubling between 2015 and 2022 from N1.832trn in 2015 to N3.494trn in 2022.”

He said that the ICPC has received and is investigating almost 100 petitions on recruitment scam from victim institutions and complicit individuals. READ MORE…