Job racketeering: Reps panel queries lopsided employment in FRC, NHSA

JONAS EZIEKE, Abuja

The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating employment racketeering by Ministries Departments and Agencies and Mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, on Tuesday interrogated the Chairman Fiscal Responsibility Commission, FRC and the Director-General Nigeria Hydrological Service Agency, NIHSA over lopsided employment carried out in these agencies with no regards to the federal character provision of the 1999 constitution

The House probe panel had demanded that the two agencies immediately submit to it the list of all staff employed between 2015- 2023 and decried the lack of adherence to extant regulations of the nation’s public service on this matter.

In his reaction, the Chairman Fisical Responsibility Commission, FRC, Victor Muruako said he was a director when the last recruitment was carried out by the agency.

Responding to question by a member of the panel on whether he will justify his agency if lawmakers should recommend appropriate sanction, FRC boss urged for understanding promising to address all irregularities pertaining to recruitment in subsequent recruitment.

Lawmakers equally frowned at stagnant fund observed in the document presented by the agency to the panel which prompted question by lawmakers on how the agency handle the fund accrued to them by staff who left the establishment to other agencies and those that died.

The lawmaker and other committee members noted that the agency got waivers for the recruitment of staff yet it failed to adhere to the provisions of federal character commission which stipulate, fairness and equity across then country during recruitment

In the same mmaner, the Director General, Nigeria Hydrogical services Agency. NHSA, Clement Nze was also queried by the lawmakers who insisted that from available records presented by the agency, most of the recruited staff are from a particular region and state, aggrieved that the establishment has no consideration to federal character principles.

According to the committee chairman, Abia, Kogi among other states were leading while FCT, Nasarawa Cross-River, Rivers and Lagos had been shortchanged in these agencies

In his presentation, the Executive Director FCT Water Sanitation Directorate, Mohammed Ali Alhassan told the lawmakers that everything with regard to employment and replacement are carried out by the Federal Capital Territory Administration and the Federal Capital Development Administration, FCDA.

The Director General Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute, NBRRI, Samson Nnam informed the lawmakers that his Institute recruited two times in 2015 and 2018.

In his ruling, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon.Yusuf Gagdi directed the agency to provide the probe panel with a comprehensive nominal roll as well as waivers, and approvals granted by agencies concerned.

Meanwhile, The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority NSIA on Tuesday began inquest into the utilization of funds in infrastructural intervention projects undertaken by the agency in all the 774 local government councils of the Nigerian federation.

Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee Hon.Ademorin Kuye said that the investigation is to look at the activities of the NSIA from inception till date to ensure effective utilization of the funds of the agency and for accountability.

He informed that the probe panel was constituted on May 19, 2023 after a motion by a lawmaker calling for an investigation into the activities of the agency was adopted by the House.

The lawmaker also hinted that the key stakeholders invited by the House Committee to the hearing include the Minister of Finance, the Director-General Nigeria Governors Forum, the Acting Governor Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, the Chairman Association of Local Government of Nigeria ALGON and Managing Director of the NSIA.

He also stated that the investigation is not a hitch hunt excercise but is aimed at fact finding on how the funds appropriated by the National Assembly to the agency had been judiciously extended in accordance to the Act for the benefits of the generality of citizens of the country.

At the hearing, the Management of the NSIA led by the Managing Director Mr Aminu Umar Sadiq said that total assets being managed by the agency is $2.27 billion.

He told the probe panel that the current management of the agency had managed the funds of the agency prudently adding that the agency had established strategic partnership with other sovereign wealth funds globally for infrastructural development of the nation

On the ownership structure of the agency, he stated that the federal government is owing 148.8%, of its shares states 136.2%, local government councils 17.8% and the FCT 10.1%.

But some lawmaker at the hearing said that the infrastructural intervention projects being undertaken by the agency is not being felt in all the 774 local government areas.

Consequently, the House Committee Chairman Hon.Kuye ruled that the committee would undertake an oversight visit of the local government councils in the federation to ascertain the interventions of the agency in various sectors of the nation’s economy.

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