JOB: Employment Scandal Rocks National Population Commission

Agency ReporterNovember 12, 2018

0 3 minutes read

The vacancies to recruit 213 new staff for the National Population Commission (NPC) approved and certified by the Federal Character Commission (FCC) has been jettisoned, while another new list has now been manufactured and used for the current employment.

But the commission in its reaction claimed it followed due process and that there was no new list.

Investigations by Sunday Tribune revealed that the commission had conducted interview for officers of Level 8 and 9 to fill in the existing vacancies in the commission following a later dated 8 June, 2018 from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, giving approval for 300 positions to be filled.

It was further gathered that the Head of Service had approved the recruitment of 40 Cartographers on Level 8; 10 on Level 9; 40 Statisticians 40 on Level 8; 5 on Level 9; 30 Vital Registration Officers for Level 8; 5 for Level 9; 30 Administrative Officers for Level 8; 10 for Level 9; 40 Programme/System Analysts for Level 8; 10 for Level 9; 40 Planning Officers for 8; 10 for Level 9; 10 Accountants for Level 8; 5 for Level 9 and 10 Information/Public Officers for Level 8; 5 for Level 9.

The letter warned NPC to obtain clearance of the Budget Office of the Federation in line with the provisions of the extant circular issued by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation before the recruitment; and adhere to extant rules including the Federal Character principle while filling the vacancies.

The letter, which emanated from the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, read: “Kindly note that on no account should the approval be varied or exceeded in order not to increase the personnel costs unduly; the officials of this office are required to be present during the exercise to ensure compliance with the waiver; and the list of candidates who are successful in the recruitment exercise should be forwarded to this office for record purposes.”

In a letter dated 20 June, 2018 from the Federal Character Commission (FCC) addressed to the Chairman of the NPC said: “having satisfactorily complied with the provisions of our circular letter titled “Procedure for Recruitment into the Federal Public Service” reference FCC/CHM/S.18/1c dated 1st September 2014, I am to inform you that the Ag. Executive has acceded to your request.

“Consequently, I am pleased to issue this certificate of compliance in your favour as authority to issue letters of appointment to the two hundred and thirteen (213) successful candidates, as contained in your list herewith attached.” It warned.

The FCC further warned that the certificate covers only the current recruitment exercise with the candidates whose names are contained in the list; and for any future recruitment exercise, a separate certificate of compliance has to be obtained.

It said the letters of appointment are to be issued to the successful candidates within three months from the date of issuance of the certificate, otherwise, it shall become lapsed and require revalidation.

The FCC further warned that on no account shall any of the names be substituted/replaced/altered without prior written consent of the commission; and upon issuance of letters of appointment to the successful candidates, “you are to, within three (3) months, forward the updated staff nominal roll to the commission.”

Contrary to the directives from the Head Service of the Federation and FCC, the National Population Commission (NPC) generated its own list with 219 new intakes completely abandoning the certified FCC stamped list and started recruiting staff, who were not interviewed but found their names in the list.

Sunday Tribune’s findings showed that the financial outlay for the 213 successful candidates which the commission allegedly cancelled was N19,114,331.28, annually as against the new generated list by the commission, which has no financial outlay.

In their separate reactions, the Head of Service and FCC said that anything done contrary to the approval was illegal as the authenticated list is what was transmitted to the commission.

According to the sources, who wanted to remain anonymity, any other appointment issued by the commission is illegal and void; expect the one approved by the FCC.
It was further gathered that the NPC has commenced the distribution of appointments to the alleged generated list.

Reacting to the story in his office, on Thursday, the Director, Human Resources of NPC, Alhaji Sa’ad Sani Saed confirmed the waiver but quickly added that there was no different list as commission still used the approved and certified list from FCC.

He explained that the commission only embarked on replacement after the field exercise which showed that some have died, while some have even secured another employment.

According to him, when there was a shortfall, the new people have to be brought in. There was no different list apart from that of Federal Character Commission (FCC). Not all of them are still available.

Some have gotten job. Some have died and they need to be replaced. After all these, after the field exercise, we went back to FCC, some were even lying but we need to replace them, so there was no new list.