EditorialTHEWILL EDITORIAL: Tackling Clandestine Recruitment In Federal Service

THEWILL EDITORIAL: Tackling Clandestine Recruitment In Federal Service

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Recent reports revealed that some federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) continue to indulge in backdoor recruitment despite claimed embargo on employment and warnings. More disturbing is the perpetration of this act amid severe fiscal challenges and when Nigeria is sinking deeper in debt.

Beneficiaries of the clandestine process are issued appointment papers which are not accredited by the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Civil Service Commission, yet they are put on payroll, thus compounding the illegal exercise. The MDAs reportedly involved in this scandalous act include the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC), the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) among the others.

Clandestine recruitment has thrived under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari since inauguration in May 2015, contradicting the anti-corruption stance which the government claims it holds sacrosanct. The anomaly which features virtually every year sparks outcry and condemnation by lawmakers, civil society organisations and other stakeholders. However, nothing concrete exists to demonstrate the government’s sincere commitment to tackling it effectively. Instead it continues to grow.

In 2019, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was reported to have employed many individuals without following the due recruitment process. The exercise set the Corporation on a collision course with the Niger Delta Youth Consort of Nigeria, which protested against the exclusion of the region and southerners in the secret recruitment.

A rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), in September 2020 reported that the Department of State Services (DSS) secretly recruited 628 officials with 535 slots given to the North, while the South received 93 slots. Besides the clandestine nature, HURIWA condemned the lopsided appointment which it said was significantly micro-zoned to the benefit of a particular ethnic and religious group against the others.

Similarly, the FIRS was enmeshed in a recruitment scandal in 2021 after it emerged that it secretly engaged 2,000 workers. The Nigerian Civil Service Union, in a petition to the FIRS Chairman, Muhammad Namu, in June 2021, revealed that the agency was struggling to pay salaries at some point after the secret engagement of the workers within 18 months.

Similarly, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, in September 2022 disclosed that her office had detected a total of 1,618 workers whose letters of employment were either fake or illegal in the Federal Civil Service.

Aside from violating the federal character principle in most cases, these under-ground recruitments inevitably impose severe constraints on the nation’s budget and lead to starving the capital vote of funds to the detriment of infrastructure development. It also widens the cesspool of corruption which the civil service has become notorious for.

Personnel cost has escalated under the Buhari administration. A total of N20.76 has been spent on personnel costs between 2016 and 2021, according to data from the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning. Personnel cost rose from N1.69 trillion in 2016 to N2.90 trillion in 2017; before climbing to N2.97 in 2018 to drop to N2.29 trillion in 2019. The figure jumped 75 percent to N3.05 trillion in 2020 and N3.75 trillion in 2021. Personnel cost for 2022 is N4.11 trillion – a rise of 41.2 percent from 2016.

The sum of N4.99 trillion is provided for personnel cost in the 2023 budget with a N9.73 trillion projected revenue and N10.7 trillion deficit. However, the World Bank has said that Nigeria’s projected revenue of N9.73 million cannot pay/service its debt which will gulp well over 100 percent of the federal government’s earnings in 2023. The new World Bank Lead Economist for Nigeria, Alex Sienaert, who disclosed this in a recent presentation said Nigeria’s debt servicing would gulp 100.2 per cent of Federal Government revenue by the end of 2022 as the nation battles acute revenue challenges.

This corroborates the statement by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, that even though revenue is increasing, the expenditure has been increasing at a much higher rate, creating a very difficult situation.

It is worrisome that despite the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which ought to weed out ghost workers and detect the manipulation of the process when secret recruitment occurs, the personnel cost had continued to rise significantly. The number of MDAs captured on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System increased from 459 in 2017 to 711 by 2021, without corresponding increase in revenue or productivity.

The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF) has continued to expose the rot in Nigeria’s high cost of governance, which secret recruitment aggravates. But little or no actions are taken to address the issues exposed by the Auditor-General. Investigations are rarely conducted nor are the culprits sanctioned. With the nation’s revenue depleting fast, it is obvious that the Nigerian government will borrow to pay salaries including those recruited through the clandestine process.

President Buhari should take bold steps to stop the secret recruitment racket in the Federal Civil Service. Recommendations by the OAuGF should be implemented to the letter in the interest of Nigerians. It is high time the long-awaited implementation of the Stephen Oronsaye Report took place towards harmonisation of the MDAs and stopping this hemorrhage on our public finance. Government should identify genuine vacancies in the Service and have them filled through due process.

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