House Of Reps To Probe MDAs, Varsities, Others Over Job Sales, IPPIS

The House of Representatives has resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), and tertiary institutions over their alleged mismanagement of personnel recruitment, employment racketeering, and breach of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

This followed a resolution on a motion moved by Oluwole Oke (Osun PDP) at plenary on Wednesday.

The House noted that the federal government had tried to address other abuses within the system particularly, the menace of ghost workers.

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It added that this necessitated the introduction of the IPPIS to help fish out a large number of ghost workers.

Presenting the motion, Oke stated that the process of recruiting and employment into the civil service had become fraught with endemic corruption.

He said, “Public institutions have since stopped the process of advertising jobs and vacancies. Even in the few instances where adverts are published, the slots are already commoditised and available for the highest bidders.

“In other words, most public institutions now sell employment positions, notwithstanding the qualification of the applicant and the ability of the applicant to perform optimally on the job.

“They have also crafted methods that are being used to circumvent the BVN technology. This state of affairs is costing the Federal Government of Nigeria billions of naira monthly in salary payments to ghost workers and illegal payments to several civil servants across cadres.

“This poses a major risk and has indeed constituted itself into a channel for the underperformance of the Nigerian public service.

“Historically and specifically, since 1960 to the 1990s, Nigeria boasted one of the best crops of public servants in the world, and service delivery was at the highest level of professionalism.

“However, this situation has since changed, largely because of the method of recruitment and the quality of recruitment into these public institutions, which is driven by fraud, abuse, corruption, and pecuniary considerations.”

The House therefore resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the MDAS, parastatals, and tertiary institutions and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.