Hunger Looms As Nigerian Government Suspends Salaries Of Civil Servants, Gives Reasons

 

The Nigerian government on Tuesday has suspended the salaries of over 3,000 Civil Servants employed between 2013 any 2020 for failure to appear for verification. The development was made known on Tuesday 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 Commission.

 The HOS who gave the keynote address spoke on the theme “Entrenching Transparency in Public Service Recruitment in Nigeria”. Nigerian Army Recruitment Portal 2022 – DSSC Course (26 / 2022) She further revealed that in the last one year, 1,000 Civil Servants with fake letters of appointment were detected in one ministry alone. Recall that in 2019, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, released a report that said 32 per cent of Nigerians gave bribes to enable them secure employment into the public service. 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. 

This figure is without prejudice to the military, paramilitary and universities. “Accordingly, the office commenced activities towards the implementation of the Human Resource (HR) Module of IPPIS with a view to bridging some of the identified gaps. “Following the successful completion of the verification exercise in the core MDAs, officers who failed to get verified have had their salaries suspended. “However, the office is carrying out a mop-up exercise in the core-MDAs for those who were not verified. As part of our control mechanisms, we are presently conducting IPPIS Human Resource (HR) Verification Exercise for the Employees of Non-Core Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) in batches, starting with Abuja after extending our earlier deadline for the closure of the IPPIS HR Verification Portal.” 

According to her, the entire exercise will cover MDAs in all the geo-political zones of the country. She noted that it is expected to end with a Mop-up Verification Exercise across the non-core MDAs in September 2022. “Thus, this would enable the office to derive a verified list of officers on IPPIS,” she added. Speaking earlier at the event, the Chairman of the ICPC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, lamented the impact of indiscriminate recruitment on the Nigerian budget. He said “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.” He said that the ICPC has received and is investigating almost 100 petitions on recruitment scam from victim institutions and complicit individuals.