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Tag: illegal recruitment

  • Illegal recruitment: INEC cautions Lagos residents

    The Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ) in Lagos State says it has apprehended some individuals impersonating officials of the commission and engaging in illegal recruitment of staff for INEC.

    Mr Femi Akinbiyi, the INEC Public Relations Officer in Lagos State, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Lagos.

    Akinbiyi said that Lagos residents must be careful of unauthorized recruitment going on in some places in the state.

    He warned those engaged in illegal recruitment for INEC to desist, saying that the commission would hunt them down and bring them to justice.

    The INEC PRO said: “On Jan. 22, our staff detected some people engaging in illegal and false recruitment of ad-hoc staff for INEC and exploiting several innocent unemployed people in Somolu Local Government Area.

    “Police were contacted and three of them impersonating INEC officials were arrested while others are still at large.

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    “These people were perpetrating this false recruitment at shop 33, Aluta Plaza, Federal College of Education, Akoka.

    “They were arraigned on Wednesday in court and got bail of N1 million each and two sureties each.

    “Our advice to the public is to be careful of unauthorized recruitment going on at different places; if there will be any recruitment, there must be advertisements.

    “We advise all persons or groups engaging in illegal recruitment for INEC to stop as the hands of the law will catch up with them very soon.”

    He said that the commission would be tough with those impersonating its officials not only in false recruitment but also those collecting money to process Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

    According to him, so many unsuspected residents went to such places, thinking that they were dealing with genuine INEC staff.

    “There are so many of these illegal recruitment going on outside, even online. Job seekers should not allow anybody to play on their intelligence.

    “We never authorize anyone to recruit ad hoc staff for us. Don’t pay anyone to get employed as ad hoc staff for the general elections. We have concluded that.

    “INEC headquarters office is open for anybody to come for clarification on some of these issues if they are confused,” Akinbiyi added.

  • ITF boss denies illegal recruitment

    The Directed General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Joseph Ari has denied making illegal recruitment into the organisation since he took over the helms of affairs at the Fund.

    Ari, who spoke with the Husaini Abubakar-led House of Representatives Committee on Industry over the weekend, said the organisation is however on the verge of recruiting a number of Nigerians having met all the requisite conditions for the exercise.

    Abubakar had during ITF’s defense of 2017 budget implementation, confronted Ari with allegations of illegal recruitment into the agency, saying, “Since this management came on board, we have not recruited a single soul. However, we met challenges on ground where letters of appointment were issued in 2015 and these Nigerians resumed, files were opened for them and were working up to the time we took over but there was no budgetary provision to pay them.”If we send them out of the system as Nigerians, who started work since 2015, they will take us to court  and they are right because we gave them letters, they resumed, they worked for one year and it wasn’t their fault that there was no budgetary provision to pay them.”

    Having accepted the explanation given by the DG, the Committee nonetheless asked when the agency intends to recruit to bolster its workforce, “Since you are spread out in the 36 states of the federation and you have so many turnovers in terms of staff. Are you delivering your mandate as you are expected to do as contained in your establishment Act?”

    In response, Ari expressed fears over the imminent recruitment exercise saying, “As soon as we came in, we carried out a verification exercise on those that came in 2014, 2015 to identify the need-based staff, the report has been turned in.”

    However, we are using this opportunity to solicit the support of this committee because it would appear that every household in Nigeria has application in ITF and that will also constitutes huge distraction and challenges when the time comes but we are putting the process in motion.

    For 2018, the agency is proposing a budget of N37.7b for its Income, N35b for Training Fund which was lower by N5b compared to N40b for 2017 while N1.395b was proposed for course fees.

    While N32.2b was proposed for recurrent expenditure, N4.9b was proposed for capital projects.

  • ‘Fed Govt adopting whistleblower policy to tackle illegal recruitment, others’

    THE Federal Government is adopting the whistleblower policy to tackle illegal recruitment and improve budgeting.

    The adoption followed the success of the policy in recovery of stolen funds.

    Minister of Finance Mrs. Kemi Adeosun broke the news in Abuja yesterday at a seminar on: “The whistleblower policy and its implication for public servants”. It was organised by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR).

    According to Mrs. Adeosun, “we are revising our procedures for approval of recruitment, which will improve our budgeting and control.”

    She stated that government’s “work is to analyse trends and take corrective actions. For example, many of the salary, tax and pension under remittance cases shared a common thread. Several cases where institutions were found to have insufficient funds to meet there obligations often had illegal recruitments, which bloated the wage bill and agencies responded by part-paying or short-paying salaries, whilst applying to the Federal Government for salary shortfall payments.

    The minister noted that “in many cases where revenue has been diverted to accounts outside TSA, we have reviewed our reconciliation and receipting processes. So, the information being provided is useful in driving process improvements.”

    Adeosun stated that much of the success of the whistleblower policy has relied on the decision of the whistleblower to do the right thing.

    She revealed that “of the 365 actionable tips we have received, over half of them have come from public servants touching on issues such as contract inflation, ghost workers, illegal recruitments, misappropriation of funds, illegal sale of government assets, diversion of revenues and violation of TSA regulations, among others.”

    In reviewing the information, she said the Federal Government has received and noticed “that certain type of tips are recurring, for example; 39 per cent (144) of the actionable tips relate to misappropriation and diversion of funds/revenue, 16 per cent (60) relate to ghost workers, illegal recruitments and embezzlement of funds meant for personnel emolument, 15 per cent (56) relate to violation of TSA regulation, 13 per cent  (49) relate to contract inflation/violation of the procurement act and failure to carry out projects for which funds have been released and nine  per cent (34) relate to non-remittance of pension & NHIS deductions. Others include concealed bail-out funds and embezzlement of funds from donor agencies”.

    Overall, Mrs. Adeosun said the volume of tips received “has been greater and of higher quality than expected when the programme was first adopted. We continue to receive information everyday with total communication reaching above 5,000 in July through our various reporting channels.”

    Adeosun assured civil servant, who “have information about a possible misconduct or violation that has occurred, is on-going, or is about to occur, we implore you to come forward and report it”.

    “You can submit your information anonymously and confidentially through the online portal, by email or by phone and if you choose to disclose your identity, I assure you that it will be fully protected.”

     

     

     

     

     

    “All information you provide will be reviewed, analysed and referred to be treated either administratively or criminally, through the investigative agencies.

    “If for any reason after a civil servant has made a disclosure, you feel that you are being treated badly because of your report, you can file a formal complaint through the same confidential channels and the matter will be dealt with immediately with the seriousness it deserves,” she said.

  • Kwara loses N400m to illegal recruitment

    Kwara loses N400m to illegal recruitment

    The government of Kwara State says it lost N400 million in the illegal recruitment of 516 workers in the state Teaching Service Commission since 2014.

    This was contained in the findings of the Administrative Panel of Enquiry instituted by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on the illegal recruitment.

    Chairman Alhaji Yusuf Kawu Daibu, while presenting the report to the governor, said it was discovered that the teaching service commission illegally employed 965 persons instead of the 449 approved in 2014.

    Daibu said the selection and recruitment were “haphazardly done as there were no records of shortlisted candidates or of an interview panel that should have formed the basis of the final list successful candidates”.

    The panel recommended, among other things, that the recruitments be reviewed and limited to the 449 by considering “the genuine need of the Teaching Service Commission for additional hands, especially in Mathematics, the core Sciences and English Language”.

    To prevent a recurrence, the panel recommended that the enabling law establishing the Teaching Service Commission be reviewed to cater for some structural defects and that the oversight function of the Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development be enforced.

    It also recommended that an effective database be established to monitor entries and exits from the employ of the teaching service commission.