The Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, disclosed on Thursday that 6,000 workers who are without employment letters have been uncovered at the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Speaking at a media parley with journalists in Abuja, Yemi-Esan said 5,000 ghost workers were uncovered at the Ministry of Information, while the Director of Human Resources at the Ministry of Labour was handed over to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) after 1,000 fake workers were uncovered at the ministry.
According to her, the exercise has pruned the payroll to 74,000 workers from over 100,000 workers that were earning salaries illegally.
She disclosed that many of the fake workers were detected from the payroll through the human components of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which was started few years ago and designed to verify credentials such as a person’s letters of appointment, academic certificates, age declaration at entry and birth certificate.
“You will be surprised at the number that did not have certificates and have been earning salaries for 10 – 20 years,” she said.
Yemi-Esan added that the Federal Civil Service Commission, two months ago, while verifying letters of employment from 2010 to date, sent to her 3,000 names of fake workers to be suspended from IPPIS for possessing bogus employment letters.
Corroborating her revelation, the Permanent Secretary, General Services Office, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Dr Maurice Mbaeri, said five fake workers were laid off at the OSGF on Tuesday after a screening exercise revealed they were neither validly employed through the Civil Service Commission nor their files found at the commission after further investigation.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that the government’s dwindling finances fired his interest in the reforms of the nation’s federal civil service.
Buhari, who was represented by the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mr Mohammed Bello, said this at the inauguration of Cultural Change Video and Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP) 25 Documents and Award Ceremony, in Abuja.
The event was organised by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), as part of activities marking the 2022 Civil Service Week, with the theme- ‘Performance Management System (PMS): Impact on Productivity’
The President said: “I have had a rare privilege of working with the Nigerian Civil Service, at the closest and innermost quarters for the large part of my sojourn in Public Service and has witnessed a formidable and strong public service, which we began to see gradually, loose its relevance in the country.”
According to him, this gradual decline propelled him to provide all the necessary support to the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF) in under-taking innovative and far-reaching reforms that is gradually showing signs of bearing the desired fruits.
He added that government would be delighted to have a civil service desirous of improving its ability to drive national development, through the recommendation of appropriate policies that would enhance the implementation of government programmes.
He assured that his administration will spare no effort aimed at improving the competencies of officers in the service through training and re-training of staff.
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