Federal Govt Uncovers 1,000 Fake Employments In 1 Ministry

  Federal Govt Uncovers 1,000 Fake                   Employments In 1 Ministry

*As ICPC probes 100 petitions on recruitment scam

The federal government has uncovered about 1, 000 fake employments and also suspended the salaries of over 3,000 civil servants employed between 2013 and 2020 for failure of the employees to appear for verification.

The federal government also said another 500 fake employment letters, which were discovered in other ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) during a service-wide verification exercise will be delisted from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

This was revealed 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 and other offences Commission (ICPC) in Abuja.

This is is even as the chairman of the ICPC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, said the Commission received and was investigating almost 100 petitions on recruitment scam from victims, institutions and complicit individuals.

While giving his keynote address, on the theme, “Entrenching Transparency in Public Service Recruitment in Nigeria”, the head of service of the federation, who did not mention the indicted ministry, said in the last one year, 1,000 civil servants with fake letters of appointment were detected in one ministry alone.

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.”

She also 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.

Speaking earlier, Prof Owasanoye, lamented the impact of indiscriminate recruitment on the Nigerian budget and noted that, “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.”