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

According to the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Job Racketeering, there are allegations that officials of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) were collecting 10% from agencies for recruitment.

There were also allegations that IPPIS officials go to agencies to ask for money before capturing people recruited by agencies, according to the Committee’s chairman, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi.

Gagdi made these remarks during 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, stated that staff hired 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 informed the Committee that he had written two separate letters to the Accountant General of the Federation requesting that affected personnel be recorded in the IPPIS.

The DTCA Director General also stated that agencies use waivers to avoid due process, which he believes is contrary to merit and competence.

I never heard of waivers during our time.” Perhaps people were not as desperate in our time as they are now. I know that if there had been something like a waiver during our time, some of us would not be in the position we are in today.

I am from a remote area of Yobe State. I took my exams without anyone’s help because I didn’t know anyone.

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 do not support 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.

For the umpteenth time, the committee’s chairman warned agencies against hiding behind waivers for recruitment without following the proper process of advertising vacancies, as this was in violation of existing laws.

He stated that most qualified Nigerian graduates, particularly those with no one, have been denied jobs due to waivers because MDAs typically carry out indoor employment without advertising to allow such Nigerians to apply for the job.

This came as the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, NAIC, which also testified before the panel, stated that it had obtained waivers from the Federal Character Commission to employ a few staff whom it could pay at the end of the month as a self-funded agency.

The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) informed the Committee that its last recruitment was in 2010, and that it has since been understaffed due to the inability to conduct another recruitment due to insufficient funding.

The commission’s chairman, Victor Murako, requested assistance from the legislature, stating that the agency is currently in a bind due to its inability to carry out its mandate.