Reps to grill VCs of federal universities on staff recruitment, IPPIS capturing

JONAS EZIEKE, Abuja

An Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives on Employment Racketeering and Gross Mismanagement of the Personnel Payroll and Information System IPPIS on Tuesday resolved to summon all the Vice Chancellors of all federal universities in Nigeria on their staff recruitment and IPPIS capturing.

The Committee also said that no amount of blackmail would deter the committee from carrying out the probe of government agencies and institutions in accordance with the constitutional mandate of exposing corruption, inefficiency and waste in the management of public resources by these government establishment.

Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee Hon.Yusuf Gagdi issued the summon at the investigative hearing on Tuesday where the Hadejia/Jamare River Basin Development Authority and eleven other similar development authorities were to appear and make a presentation on the issue.

The Committee grilled the agency on its staff nominal role, its staff recruitment records, payroll, and state and geo-political zones of the employees recruited

The lawmaker and other committee members gave the Managing Director of the Hadejia/Jamare River Basin Development Authority represented by the Executive Director Engr. Sani Bello a clean bill of health for being one out of twelve River Basin Development Authorities to appear on the matter under investigation.

A member of the House probe panel Hon.Clement Jimbo however picked holes in the staff payroll saying that in 2016, the agency conducted recruitment and increased its staff from 319 to 326 without the approval of the relevant authorities.

He also noted that there were no proper advertisements on the agency’s recruitment and asked the agency “Why did you choose not to advertise?”

Responding Executive Director Engr Sani Bello said that the agency is representing only three northern states of Kano, Bauchi and Jigawa adding that it employed only people of the catchment area in its staff recruitment.

He explained to the committee that there is a lot of pressure from people in the catchment area of the agency on staff recruitment and assured that lopsided employment in the agency would be addressed in subsequent employment

He however dismissed the issue of nepotism in the agency’s nominal roll of staff saying that whereas he hails from Kano State, the managing director is from Jigawa State.

The Committee Chairman,  Hon.Gagdi appealed to newsmen to be factual and not drag the committee into the mud in the efforts to send captivating stories that would help to sell their news outlets

On the appearance of the Vice Chancellors, he said the committee secretariat should write to the National Universities Commission, NUC asking that they should appear before the probe panel unfailingly on Friday, September 1, 2023, at 10:00am.

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