Job Racketeering: IPPIS Officials ‘Collect’ 10% From Agencies – Reps Panel

House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Job Racketeering said there are allegations against officials of Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) that they were collecting 10 per cent from agencies for recruitment.

The chairman of the Committee, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi, there were also allegations that IPPIS officials go to agencies to ask for money before capturing people recruited by agencies.

Gagdi stated these at the Committee’s resumed hearing on Wednesday when the Director-General, Directorate for Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA), Rabiu Dagari who appeared before the lawmakers indicated that staff recruited since 2019 have not been captured in the system.

He said, “IPPIS, we have allegations against you that you are collecting 10 per cent from agencies for recruitment. 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. They wrote two letters to IPPIS to capture the people that they followed due process in recruiting and you refused.

“There are allegations that you go to agencies to ask for money before you capture the people you want to capture. Yet, the ones that are legitimately employed will not be captured. If an agency wrote to IPPIS to capture people that were recruited, it means that the employment is legitimate.”

Dagari told the Committee that he had written two separate letters to the Accountant General of the Federation for affected staff to be captured in the IPPIS.

The DTCA Director General also observed that agencies rely on waivers to carry out recruitment so as to avoid due process, saying that was inimical to merit and competence.

“During our time, I never heard of waivers. Maybe during our time, people were not as desperate as they are now. I know that during our time, if there was something like a waiver, some of us would not be holding the position we are holding today. 

I come from a very remote area in Yobe State. Without knowing anybody, I did my exams without anybody assisting me.

“If we had this type of situation then, some of us will not be holding the position we are holding today and maybe I will not be sitting here talking to you. I am not in support of waiver because so much cutting corners are done when it comes to waiver.

“We are having so many problems in this country because we refuse to do the right thing and waiver is an opportunity for people to cut corners. Something has to be done about it.”

The committee’s chairman for umpteenth time warned agencies  against hiding under waivers for recruitment without following the due process of advertising vacancies as that was in contravention of extant laws.

He said most qualified Nigerians graduates specially those who have nobody have been denied job because of waivers as MDA’s usually carry out indoors employment without advertisement to enable such Nigerians apply for the job.

This was as the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, NAIC which also appeared before the panel said it got waivers from the Federal Character Commission to employ a few staff which it could pay at the end of the month as a self-funded agency.

On its part, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) told the Committee that its last recruitment was in 2010 and it has since been understaffed because of the inability to carry out another recruitment due to inadequate funding.

The chairman of the commission, Victor Murako appealed to the legislature for assistance, noting that the agency is currently in a dilemma because of its inability to carry out its mandate.