ICPC begins investigation on job racketeering at MDAs

Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Disclosed, Friday, that it has commenced investigation into petitions received from two interested parties on the House of Representatives ad hoc committee probing activities at the ministries and agencies of government involved in job racketeering.

According to the ICPT, the petitions are from Chairman of the Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Ad-Hoc Committee on the Investigation of Job Racketeering and Gross Mismanagement in Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), probing the job racketeering, and an online newspaper, Premium Times.

The Reps panel, headed by Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, is the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Investigation of Job Racketeering and Gross Mismanagement in Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

It would be recalled that House of Representatives had, early last August constituted an adhoc committee chaired by Hon. Gagdi (APC-Plateau State) to investigate ‘Ministries Departments and Agencies on mismanagement of personnel recruitment, employment racketeering and gross mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) after a motion moved and adopted by Oluwole Oke (PDP, Osun).

Since the beginning of its sitting, the committee has been inundated with revelations involving a complex ring of officials involved in underhand dealings, including selling job offers at a price running into millions.

Chairman of the committee disclosed that its have petitions against 39 MDAs over allegations of job racketeering and other infractions.

He said some of the MDAs accused include; the Federal Character Commission (FCC); Office of the Head of Service; Budget Office, IPPIS, Federal Civil Service Commission and others.

He said the committee will also in line with its mandate engage over 600 MDAs to unearth the extent of job racketeering in the federal civil service.

At the centre of it all is the Federal Character Commission (FCC), an agency set up to ensure equitable representation of all parts of Nigeria in the federal civil service.

The FCC is headed by a chairman and has 37 commissioners representing the 36 states and the FCT.

However, as revealed at the sitting of the committee, beneath the facade of the representation lies a corrupt entity churning in millions in kickbacks, outright sales of job slots.

Another agency that had been aiding the fraud as alleged at the committee’s sitting is the IPPIS, a platform incharge of processing payment of salaries for federal civil servants.

Things began to unravel when at the initial sitting of the committee the FCC’s chairperson, Muheeba Dankaka, failed to appear before it and sent in some commissioners to represent her, claiming to have an appointment with her doctor.

However, in the middle of the sitting, the FCC commissioner representing Delta State, Moses Anaughe, alleged that the chairperson was in her office and the doctor’s appointment side of her story was a farce.

This opened the floodgates of accusations and counter-accusations between the chairperson and a group of some commissioners called ‘Integrity Group’, when she appeared at the next sitting of the committee.

The commissioners, in various written petitions to the committee, accused the chairperson of running a ring selling job slots, using a ‘rogue staff’ called Haruna Kolo as a proxy.

The commissioner representing Osun State in the commission, Abdulrazak Adewuyi, and the commissioner representing Rivers State, Okwacha Augustine, alleged that the chairperson has been running the commission in violation of Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Section 2 of the FCC Act and other extant laws.

Some documents submitted to the committee by the commissioners in the ‘Integrity Group’ alleged that Dankaka often connived with MDAs to collect 10 per cent of jobs.

However, the chairperson denied the allegations saying it was a gang-up by the aggrieved commissioners to tarnish her image because of her stance to stop the unwholesome practice of job racketeering in FCC.

She accused the commissioners from the ‘Integrity Group’ of mischief and blackmail because of her refusal to compromise.

Dankaka informed the committee that the commissioners were selling jobs before she came into office in July 2020 and her refusal to join the fray was the reason they moved against her.

“When you fight corruption, corruption will fight back.

“I did not come to make money, but to serve my fatherland; what some of them are looking for is money. Before I came here I had made my money. Some of them have their reasons for attacking me,” she alleged.

However, Kolo’s appearance opened the Pandora’s Box after he had admitted selling job slots when he was confronted with evidence of transactions amounting to N75 million linked to his personal accounts in three banks.

He confessed that he received millions of Naira from people who paid for job placements, allegedly on behalf of the executive chairperson, Muheeba Dankaka.

“The FCC chairman instructed me to liaise with one Mr Shehu who is a personal driver and PA to the Taraba State commissioner. As a desk officer, I am responsible to take whoever is employed to IPPIS for capturing. No one can go there without a letter from the Chairman or Human Resource officer of FCC.

“When she came, she wrote a letter to the Accountant General instructing that no letter from FCC should be honoured except she signs the letter. So whenever there was new employment, she signed, gave to me and I took to the Accountant General’s office for capturing.

During her appearance before the committee, the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Folashade Yemi-Esan, accused MDAs of employing far above the number they requested and was approved for them.

She said federal universities were the worst in this regard as they employ non-academic staff which such waivers did not cover.

“That was why we decided whenever they want to recruit, they should write to the National Universities Commission which oversees them directly, then NUC will write to us,” she said.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein, told the panel that out of the 900 federal government agencies, 640 have so far been enrolled on IPPIS.

The chairman of the committee, Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, described the level of job racketeering in MDAs as alarming.

“There is no agency in Nigeria that would exonerate itself of some of these defects of favouritism, nepotism and what have you. Waiver is a fraud. Agencies are hiding under waiver to recruit their family members, friends and to sell jobs.

He accused agencies of often failing to advertise vacancies, denying many qualified Nigerians the opportunity to apply.