House Frowns At Lopsided Recruitments In MDAs

The House of Representatives has cautioned the leadership of government agencies to work for Nigeria and not their local governments or states.

The chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee Investigating Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, and Tertiary Institutions on Mismanagement, Personnel Recruitment, Employment Racketeering and Gross Mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS,  Committee, Yusuf Gagdi, gave the warning at the resumed hearing of the committee, in Abuja.

The warning became necessary as investigations revealed employment lopsidedness in agencies that appeared before the committee.

Gagdi pointed out that it was unfortunate that people given responsibilities see it as a way to uplift their brethren while victimizing other Nigerians.

During their separate appearances, the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute and the Nigeria Hydrological Service Agency failed to meet up with the Federal Character Commission’s due process.

Both agencies were observed to have employment imbalances.

It was also observed that the Chief Executive Officers of both agencies, largely employed people from their states and local government areas.

To that effect, the chairman and members of the committee pointed out that it was unfair to other Nigerians who were deprived of employment.

The Director General of the Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute, Prof Samson Duna, said that the agency recruited twice in the year 2015 and 2018 and has not recruited again.

On sighting the agency’s nominal roll the members of the committee were furious at the lack of spread in the employment.

“Going forward,d all other agencies should take note that they need to give us the summary page so that we will know how to make our comment at the end of the day. Let us have the summary so that our report at the end of the day should be able to analyze the state representation of nominal roll of staff in government ministries and departments,” Gagdi said.

They said that the committee also needs to know the gap that exists in agencies that have not recruited over the years.

Similarly, the Director General of the Nigeria Hydrological Service Agency, Mr. Clement Onyeaso Nze, who was making a second appearance at the committee, submitted the documents requested.

He admitted that there was lopsidedness in employment by the agency which would be corrected subsequently.

The committee adjourned for further deliberations.