Ending Recruitment Racket, Ghostworking in Public Service

Development

Government’s treasury has suffered colossal drain and hit by the crisis in the public service recruitment process in the country. This is because ghost workers and ghost recruitment have eaten deeply into the resources of the government. Kunle Aderinokun reports that recent efforts of government are geared towards eradicating the scourge

Not  peculiar to the federal level, the twin problem of recruitment racket and ghostworking, is indeed ubiquitous that no certain level or unit of government is exempted.  Disturbingly, the anomaly has lingered that anyone could insinuate that it’s a norm. 

Just six years ago, precisely on Thursday, May 5, 2016, during the meeting between federal ministries and Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) in Lagos State as organised by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the then Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, unequivocally disclosed that the then N165billion monthly salaries cum allowances of federal civil servants was over-bloated, thus could no longer be sustained by the federal government.

Adeosun, who was speaking on the economic reform agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, had stated that the said fund represented about 40 per cent of the total spending made by the federal government.

Apart from Adeosun, the Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, had raised concern that these days, the recruitment into the security agencies (Nigerian Army, Police and others) have been politicised. 

According to him, the governors, ministers and other top government functionaries have  slots for job seekers who are not interviewed whether they are qualified or not. 

Prior to the governor’s assertion, the House of Representatives had in January last year proposed a bill to criminalize secret recruitment in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government.

The lawmakers had alleged that some MDAs recruit their staff without making their employment public.

Another worrying dimension of the growing patronage system in the Nigerian public service is the widespread allegation that job selling and buying phenomenon, has become a thriving culture over the years. 

Some people have even confessed paying huge sums of money to get employed into the widely perceived most lucrative agencies of the public service.

In 2019, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, released a report that said 32 per cent of Nigerians gave bribes to enable them secure employment into the public service.

In a bid to address these challenges, stakeholders converged at a National Policy Dialogue organised under the auspices of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) through its Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN).

The workshop with the theme “Entrenching Transparency in Public Service Recruitment in Nigeria,” was attended by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan, the ICPC Chairman, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, the Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, and Prof. Isaac Obasi who is a Visiting Professor at the ICPC’s Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN), among others.

Speaking at the event, Yemi-Esan said the federal government has suspended the salaries of over 3,000 Civil Servants employed between 2013 and 2020 for failure to appear for verification.

She further revealed that in the last one year, 1,000 civil servants with fake letters of appointment were detected in one ministry alone.

She said, “It would be recalled that in March last year, the Office was informed of the detection of fake letters of employment presented in some Ministries. For instance, in the past year, in one ministry alone, over 1,000 individuals bearing fake letters of appointment were detected.

“In the light of the aforementioned, it is disheartening to point out that the office recently received a report from the Federal Civil Service Commission forwarding the names of over 500 persons in various MDAs in possession of fake letters of appointment and which are to be delisted from the IPPIS Platform.

“Following the outcome of the Service-wide Verification Exercise for officers recruited from 2013 – 2020, the Federal Civil Service Commission has also requested the suspension of the salaries of over 3,000 officers across the MDAs who failed to appear for the exercise pending further clearance.”

Yemi-Esan said her office had taken decisive steps to nip in the bud the alarming sharp practices and acts of impunity being perpetrated on the IPPIS, as well as to purge the system of all infiltrations.

According to her, the federal government desires to block financial leakages from high personnel costs caused by ghost workers in the system. She further revealed that by the end of March, 390,000 officers were enrolled on the IPPIS payroll.

She said, “As at March 2022, over 390,000 officers are on the IPPIS payroll being 66,000 and 320,000 for core and non-core MDAs respectively. This figure is without prejudice to the military, paramilitary and universities.

“Accordingly, the office commenced activities towards the implementation of the Human Resource (HR) Module of IPPIS with a view to bridging some of the identified gaps.

“Following the successful completion of the verification exercise in the core MDAs, officers who failed to get verified have had their salaries suspended.

“However, the office is carrying out a mop-up exercise in the core-MDAs for those who were not verified. As part of our control mechanisms, we are presently conducting IPPIS Human Resource (HR) Verification Exercise for the Employees of Non-Core Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) in batches, starting with Abuja after extending our earlier deadline for the closure of the IPPIS HR Verification Portal.”

According to her, the entire exercise will cover MDAs in all the geo-political zones of the country. She noted that it is expected to end with a Mop-up Verification Exercise across the non-core MDAs in September 2022.

“Thus, this would enable the office to derive a verified list of officers on IPPIS,” she added.

In his speech at the event, the Chairman of ICPC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, lamented the impact of indiscriminate recruitment on the federal government’s budget. He said indiscriminate recruitment had impacted the budget negatively such that government personnel wage bill has continued to rise geometrically almost doubling between 2015 and 2022 from N1.832trn in 2015 to N3.494trn in 2022.

The ICPC Boss said the commission was investigating almost 100 petitions on recruitment scam from victim institutions and complicit individuals.He said that the timing of the policy dialogue could not have come at a better time than now because there was near consensus across the country and across all political divides that there is a lack of transparency in public service recruitment process across all tiers of government in our country. 

Owasanoye said, “Indiscriminate recruitment has impacted personnel budget such that government personnel wage bill has continued to rise geometrically almost doubling between 2015 and 2022 from N1.832trn in 2015 to N3.494trn in 2022. 

“To underscore the corruption prevalent in the process, ICPC has received and is investigating almost 100 petitions on recruitment scam from victim institutions and complicit individuals. The situation festers due to lack of transparency. There is also the associated problem of fake certificates that dog the process thus compounding a bad situation now made worse.”

He said the lack of transparency in the recruitment process had been a subject of discussions not only in the various mass media, but also very vociferously in the legislative arms of government across levels. 

The ICPC boss added, “Some members of the executive arm of government have equally voiced their concerns on the matter. In actual fact, many Nigerians in both official and non-official quarters have expressed serious concerns over the growing patronage system in the public sector. 

“The expectation here is that this Policy Dialogue session made up of experienced, knowledgeable and diverse stakeholder groups across official and non-official divide would offer a more dispassionate look at this problem which is almost becoming endemic. 

“This endemic feature is not surprising because it’s driving forces include desperation for stable employment that the public service offers, the abject lack of scrutiny and laxity of the public service employment process, endemic perception of commercialization of service delivery by graft and gratification and systemic corruption.”

Speaking on the impact of patronage in the recruitment process, Obasi who is a Visiting Professor at the ICPC’s Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria said in his paper presented at the workshop, that the exclusion of large number of qualified young prospective employees with degrees and higher diploma certificates fuels youth restiveness which is very dangerous to nation-building and national unity.

He explained further that this could lead to youth restiveness that would be manifested in extreme cases to separatist and secessionist agitations and moderately into militancy.

The university don argued further that in any country where the best and brightest are not in charge of the bureaucracy of governance, the costly price of incompetence paid manifests in widespread inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the implementation of public policies.

According to him, there are many cases of catastrophes that are demonstrative of the costly price of incompetence particularly when intermixed with fraudulent intentions and practices.

“A major deleterious effect of patronage system of recruitment (nepotism, cronyism, and prebendalism) is the violation of the constitutional provision of the federal character principle through a lopsided recruitment process. This contributes immensely to the heating up of the polity,” he added.

He submitted that if the issue of lopsided recruitment process is left unchecked, Nigeria would fast be losing completely the meritocratic culture of recruitment.

Obasi said that the task before the ACAN policy dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in Public Service Recruitment Process, is to provide more experiential insight helpful for preparing a Policy Brief that would effectively address this lingering problem.

In his remarks at the event, the Minister of Interior,  Rauf Aregbesola, commended the ICPC for carving a niche for itself as one of the agencies of government that have carried the transparency and integrity crusade of the government on their shoulders and has continued to shine like a bright star in that mission.

He said the dialogue is typical of an agency that is not just fighting corruption but has taken engagement of the civil society to be equally important.

The minister revealed how his ministry stopped some high profiled government officials from influencing the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps recruitment.

Aregbesola said in the course of managing 1.5 million applicants for 5,000 NSCDC Jobs, the ministry was faced with pressures from people who were promised jobs by top government officials.

“The recruitment process into the NSCDC was long and tortuous, though it is also a novelty. So, we expect a lot of pressure. Some of the pressures are understandable,” Aregbesola said.

The minister said of the 1.5 million applications received for the 5,000 NSCDC job, 750,000 met the requirements on age and height and were asked to upload their certificates. 

He narrated that about 217,000 applicants uploaded their certificates of which 113,000 were shortlisted to write the CBT. He stated further that only 53,116 sat for the test where 5,000 candidates emerged successful.

Aregbesola revealed that during the process, “A woman came with her son after getting very high up people to influence his appointment. But we discovered that the son was far, far below the required height of 1.7 metres. 

“Some applicants on wheelchairs also came, demanding for the statutory five per cent allocation for special people.

“We politely explained to them that the job is paramilitary, requiring strenuous physical exercise for which they are not eligible, given their physical condition.”

According to him, part of the strategies adopted to curb the corrupt practices was to set aside manual mode of conducting tests and employing the service of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board.

He said, “In recruiting into the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the board decided to advertise in the media to bring the information to the awareness of as many people as possible. 

“This ruled out secret recruitment. We also put away the manual mode of conducting tests to computer-based tests that can be done in any location, eliminating the need to have a mass crowd together in one place. We hired a reputable examination body, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for the aptitude test.

“In addition, we included the National Identity Number (NIN) to authenticate the identities and bio data of applicants and eliminate fraud and possible impersonation. We also engaged the Federal Character Commission at all stages of the recruitment exercise. All these were done through a dedicated website,” the minister revealed.

Stakeholders at the event agreed that to address the issue of lopsided recruitment, Professional Human Resources bodies could be engaged to recruit credible candidates based on their capabilities, as this would help curb the prevalence of nepotism and favouritism in appointments.

It was also recommended that there should be equitable distribution of vacant positions while not compromising on meritocracy and traditional methods of recruiting should be complimented with e-recruitment solutions for transparency.

The need for increased sensitization of public institutions on the benefits of involving private sector/stakeholders in recruitment policy formulation was also reinforced while government institutions responsible for appointment should be shielded from all forms of external interference.