The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee probing employment racketeering in Ministries Department and Agencies (MADs), picked hole in the recruitment process and manipulation of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS).
The Committee Chairman, Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, queried the Directorate for Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA), for refusing to capture some staff in the IPPIS.
According to him, some agencies conceal funds of civil servants who have retired, resigned or died.
Also Gagdi tackled the management of Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), for getting waiver for employment without forging ahead with the process.
He said: “The next agency we will put before us here is IPPIS. Have you taken note of the fact that they wrote to you concerning the recruitment they did?
“They have a balance of resources as a result of retirement and other reasons. These monies are always ‘absconded’ and not returned to the treasury.
While vetting the report of the IPPIS, he said: “From the report, the normal rule is here from 2015 till date. Staff recruited since is here and we’ll paginated.
“Staff recruitment in 2016 and state and local government of origin is here which is good.
“The other thing you will take note and give us is the gap that exist in your personnel funds whether due to retirement or resignation.
“Agency needs to furnish us with those information so that we will be able to know the whereabout of those monies since in each agency, people die people retire and people exit service for one reason or the other.
“So, if these people exit let us know how much is remaining in your personnel cost. But again the Committee has issues with your agency with regards to complain of the management of the Directorate of Technical Corporation in Africa (DTCA) about employment that took place in 2019.
“You may not be there, but you are here to account for the agency.”
In his response, DTCA Director General, Rabiu Dagari, admitted that there were discrepancies in the system, but claimed to have met a faulty system.
Dagari said: “I met that case and the people came to my office and because I sympathize with their case and there was nothing the directorate could do.
“We appealed to the office of the Accountant General to capture these individuals so that they can be posted in line with the service. But that was beyond us.
“But I wrote two separate letters to the Accountant General but none was acted upon.
“Honestly, if these were to be done during my time this presentation would have been different because I will be as fair as possible.
“But this is something I am not proud of say that some states are poorly represented and some states are over represented.
“This is something that would not have happened under my watch. And if for any reason I am going to do any recruitment for which is not even possible because we are already over staffed.
“This is an agency that existed for over 20 years with less than 100 staff then in one fell swoop over a 100 people were recruited.
“I accept that this is what I met. But we have to admit that it is wrong. But I do know the circumstances under which this scheme came about. I met the situation.”
The Committee directed the heads of DTCA, FRC and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NISHA), to appear before it with relevant documents to back up their claims.
