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Tag: appointees

  • Reps panel to probes severance package for political appointees

    Reps panel to probes severance package for political appointees

    The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has said it needs to investigate the processes of approving severance package for political appointees in the Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of government.

    The chairman of the committee, Bamidele Salam (PDP, Osun), named a five-man sub-committee to handle the investigation and make recommendations for adoption.

    He said the Public Accounts Committee may have to recommend to the whole House an amendment to the establishment Act of some government agencies.

    Salam spoke when the management of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) appeared before the committee to defend the 2020 audit queries issued by the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAudGF).

    The committee chairman said the boards of some government agencies appeared too powerful and approved any amount as severance package for their appointees.

    Read Also: Reps seek probe into death of two EFCC operatives

    He expressed concern over the scale of the severance package paid to board members of some agencies of government, saying: “If we are paying such an amount to executive commissioners who served for just four years, how do we justify compensation for individuals who have served this country for 35 years, including those who have served in war zones and on the frontlines?”

    Salam said it was necessary for the government to efficiently manage its finances, especially given the current fiscal challenges.

    Responding, SEC’s Director General, Dr. Emomotimi Agama, explained that the severance package and allowances were paid to the former executive commissioners who served from 2013 to 2017.

    “At the end of their four-year tenure, they were paid severance packages as approved by the board for their positions,” he said.

    Agama explained that the commission operates the defined benefit and contributory pension schemes that are managed by three Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs): Sigma, Premium pension, and Stanbic IBTC.

    He said the commission opted to pay management fees to the PFAs to reduce the risk of a future deficit that would require offsetting within 90 days.

    The report indicated that N128,869,606.22 was paid to an individual on January 5, 2017, as severance allowance, as well as N128,556,888.58 paid to another individual on the same date, also as severance allowance.

    Also, the Office of the AuGF queried the commission over an illegal payment on the gross income earned from pension fund investments, totaling N93,380,888.38.

  • Retreat for political appointees

    Retreat for political appointees

    As part of the moves to enhance the capacity-building of his appointees for effective performance, Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is holding a two-day retreat for political office holders and accounting officers in the state.

    The retreat is to deliberate on how to further translate the governor’s five cardinal programmes into action.

    To achieve this, political appointees and bureaucrats are expected to discuss the features of the five cardinal programmes with particular reference to the mandate of their (appointees) portfolios and they intend to bring the ministerial structure, policies, processes people and systems to bear on their mandate in the execution of the programmes.

    Focus of the retreat will also be on the delivery strategy of the governor’s blueprint to progress.

    Each political appointee will spend 15 minutes to highlight how they have been interpreting and implementing his or her own aspects of the five cardinal programmes of the state government.

    State of the state and pathways to sustainable development, which will focus on the current socio-economic profile of the state relative to other states in the South-West region and its ranking nationally will be debated by lead experts at the retreat.

    The political appointees are expected to come out of the retreat, which ends on Saturday, February 3, better in their respective fields.

  • Akintola hails Ajimobi on Oyo board appointees

    Akintola hails Ajimobi on Oyo board appointees

    Lawyer and aspirant for Oyo State governorship ticket Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN) has congratulated Governor Abiola Ajimobi for appointing indigenes and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) into boards of federal agencies.

    Among those appointed into boards in the state are: former Deputy Governor Iyiola Oladokun (National Environment Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency); Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle (National Lottery Regulatory Commission); Prof Adeolu Akande (Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency) and former President of Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes, (CCII), Chief Bayo Oyero (Federal College of Agriculture, Akure).

    In a statement yesterday, the APC chieftain lauded the initiative of Governor Ajimobi for rewarding men and women of impeccable integrity from the state.

    He said the appointments “reflect the governor’s character as a man of principle, non-vengeance-seeking fellow who believes in fairness, merit and appreciation of the political and geographical arithmetic of our most noble and largest state in the South of Nigeria”.

  • Lawyer hails Ayade on aptitude test for appointees

    Lawyer hails Ayade on aptitude test for appointees

    An Abuja-based lawyer and arbitrator, Dr. Dorn cKlaimz  Enamhe,  has praised Cross River  State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade for introducing aptitude tests for appointees.

    He said the decision to subject  nominees of political appointment  to mandatory integrity and aptitude tests before forwarding their names to the House of Assembly for confirmation was a welcome development.

    In a chat with our correspondent, Enamhe said: “ It ought to be a thing of joy and relief, considering that for the first time, there will be a dispassionate way of assessing prospective commissioners, Special Assistants and other officers of the state  with a view to identifying their peculiar strengths and weaknesses.

    “It will also assist to identify the mental alertness of those who will assist the erudite governor to drive the vision and  policies of his administration rather than merely juggling a list submitted by political leaders at ward, local government and state levels.

    “Come to think of it, is this not what past governors did, howbeit, mentally and without a definite format? Isn’t it a plus that now there will be specific considerations known to all three members of the committee headed by a learned Senior Advocate  of Nigeria, Mr. Paul Erokoro who should submit a report based on pure facts in addition to the fact that the nominees have been recommended?”

    Commenting on President Muhammadu Buhari’s botched visit to Cross River State, Dr. Enamhe said: “ There are many lessons to learn here,  it’s great to know that a breach of procedure can be curbed by a lot of things  in Nigeria like what just happened.

    “The Environmental Impact Assessment ( EIA)  is ongoing and should be completed without event. Certainly, there cannot be such an adverse impact that would warrant the project being stopped, especially as the road does not affect our forest reserves as many people would like to believe in order to further criticise Professor Ben Ayade.

    “The governor is a Professor of Environmental Law, whose programmes are environment and people-friendly. For instance, he recently provided for the recruitment of more than 500 people into the Green Police whose main responsibility is to guard our forests, our biodiversity, ecosystems and ensure sanitation in the state

    “The other day, he led others to clean up the capital city, Calabar and this he has done several times.

    “Also he has been in the forefront of making sure civil servants come to work early. He has set a standard in the state by being there before the rest.

    “He has also personally made sure that salaries that were owed were cleared and is in the process of clearing the remaining backlog of salaries. He negotiated with the Judiciary workers and got them to call off their several months strike which paralysed the courts in the state like many other states of the Federation.”

    On the challenge of child labour and prostitution  in the state, Dr. Enamhe said: “The State Government has a  programme tagged: “Operation  Skolombo” to take care of them.

    “The government recently cleared  Calabar  of the menace of  street  prostitution  and other social vices, showing clearly his no-nonesence intolerance for social menace.

    “It is more pertinent now than ever, so  all hands  must  be on deck to give our governor the expected support. He has kept his word, the materials for the garment industry have already hit the ground and, but for a few technical issues that are now being resolved, the Super Highway project would have gone very far.”

     

     

  • Ex-Kogi top appointees threaten to sue govt for unpaid pensions

    Ex-Kogi top appointees threaten to sue govt for unpaid pensions

    Five retired Kogi State Heads of Service (HOSs) and 52 permanent secretaries have threatened to sue the government fot the non-payment of their harmonised statutory pension allowances.

    The 57 aggrieved pensioners, under the aegis of Association of Retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries, expressed their displeasure in a letter to Governor Idris Wada  yesterday in Lokoja, the state capital.

    The letter by the aggrieved pensioners’ Chairman, J. O. Mesole and Secretary, John Ausa, accused the government of placing them on 50 per cent pension since December, 2011.

    They said the government was owing them N11.3 million monthly.

    The retired senior civil servants regretted that nine of their members had died since 2012 while waiting for their pensions.

    According to them, they had reached the limit of their patience and would take legal action to protect their rights, as enshrined in the Constitution.

    The pensioners said their counterparts, who retired after December 2011, were receiving their full pensions, while 57 of them, who retired before the 2011 harmonisation, were placed on 50 per cent part-payment.

    The letter reads: “Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries are in the management cadre. They are also on consolidated pay (not on salary grade level) and earn 100 per cent of their total emoluments as pension for life.

    “For this reasons, their pensions are to be automatically harmonised to be at par with the pay of their serving counterparts with effect from the date there is pay rise for them. Their own case of harmonisation is different.”

    The association noted that withholding pension or part of it violated Section 210(2) of the Constitution, which states that a pension shall not be withheld or altered to the disadvantage of a pensioner.

    They said: “Asking us to wait until the finances of government would have improved before our request could be granted is as good as saying we should wait indefinitely or that we should forget about the request.”

    The retirees said they were not unaware of the financial position of the state, adding that they would not ask for payment of arrears from December 2011 till date but the approval for full implementation from July 1, 2015.

    They said: “All we are requesting is for Your Excellency to kindly approve, with effect from July 1, 2015, payment of the fully consolidated and harmonised pension of the five retired HOS and 52 permanent secretaries.”

    The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede, acknowledged receipt of two letters from the association on the arrears of 50 per cent of their harmonised pension.

    He called for their understanding, saying the state was going through “a very difficult, excruciatingly painful financial crunch at the moment”.

     

     

  • Reduce political appointees to cut cost, says PENGASSAN chief

    Reduce political appointees to cut cost, says PENGASSAN chief

    Rather than impose unnecessary austerity measures on Nigerians, governments at all levels, especially the executive and legislators, should prune the number of their political aides as a means of cutting cost, the President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Comrade Francis Johnson, gave the advice. He argued that the huge number of political appointees as aides to the Presidency, ministers, governors and their commissioners amount to waste of national resources and putting pressure on the economy.

    The PENGASSAN president also cautioned the Federal Government, especially the Federal Ministry of Finance against stifling the economy through withholding of funds for human and developmental projects, but to tighten the noose around all avenues of leakages and wastages.  He stated that instead of the government to introduce austerity measures that will further impoverish and inflict more pains on the people, governments should consider reducing to the barest minimum the numbers of senior special advisers, special advisers, advisers and other aides that are attached to the presidency, the ministers, governors as well as members of the National Assembly and state houses of assembly.“The cost of governance in Nigeria is too high and irrational and if we are looking for ways to cut cost, I think the first place to exemplarily focus on is in the direction of reducing the number of political appointees to the barest minimum. The huge amount we spend in paying these aides can be used on developmental projects and boosting of the nation’s economy. The governors, ministers and federal and state legislators should also be made to reduce their aides to a sizeable number that our economy can bear and whatever is gotten from this exercise should be used in supporting and bolstering the economy,” he said.The union leader also called on the Federal Government to develop other sectors along with the extractive and manufacturing industries as a way of  diversifying the national economy from its over dependence on oil revenue. According to him, it is only the development of other minerals, agricultural and the manufacturing sectors that could help Nigeria to escape the vagaries of the challenges pose by the dwindling global oil price, especially as the agrarian potentials are being left under-un-utilised.Comrade Johnson noted that the price of oil is critical to the world economy, given that oil is the largest internationally traded commodity both in volume and value terms, adding that only oil is linked to some extent to the prices of other products.

  • ‘Sack of Ladoja’s appointees overdue’

    A socio-cultural group, the Oyo Patriotic Front (OPF), yesterday said the sack of former Governor Rashidi Ladoja’s men in the administration of Governor Abiola Ajimobi was overdue.

    In a statement by its Chairman, Chief Jare Adepoju, the group said Ajimobi’s action was a right step in the right direction.

    Describing the governor as “too large-hearted”, OPF said no politician would allow members of an opposition party that was determined to “pull him down” in his administration.

    It said: “We recall that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Oyo State was vehemently opposed to the alliance between the Ajimobi administration and Ladoja.

    “Ordinarily, there would have been nothing wrong with such an alliance, given the circumstances surrounding it, but with Ladoja allowing his ambition to becloud his sense of reasoning, it was an alliance waiting to collapse. And that is exactly what has happened.

    “Despite the fact that Accord members were active participants in the Ajimobi administration, Ladoja and his cohorts never stopped attacking the government.

    “Only a fool will allow the enemies within to pull down his administration in the name of an alliance that was not worth its name. Ironically, even the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has not stood up against the Ajimobi administration the way the Accord has.

    “We wish Ladoja and his Accord well in their pull-him-down approach to governance. We urge Ajimobi to concentrate on improving the state. Ladoja is not only a distraction, he is also a liability to Oyo State and an enemy to its progress.”