A swathe of alleged fake appointment and recruitment letters in possession of many employment seekers has compelled the setting up of service-wide verification exercise for all officers recruited by the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) from 2013 to 2020.
This follows accusation and counter accusations from the commission and some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that expressed serious reservations over the commission’s persistent seizure of recruitment and appointment letters they forwarded to the FCSC for authentication and subsequent documentation and enrolment for the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) capturing.
FCSC
These letters, which bear insignia and stamp of the FCSC, as well as the signature of the director recruitment and appointment who does that on behalf of the chairman of the commission, are accepted and honoured by the MDAs.
But the FCSC frowned at those letters on the grounds that they did not emanate from them.
Blueprint Newspapers investigation spanning over three months, reveals that on an average, no fewer than two dozens of such fake appointments and recruitment letters in the possession of desperate job seekers were weekly seized by the commission.
For instance, our investigation revealed that no fewer than 300 of such alleged fake appointment and recruitment letters from one of the core ministries located at Mabuchi were seized by the commission within two months in 2019, and subsequently, a further 20 from the same ministry during the peak month of the COVID 19 saga last year.
The authenticity of such letters, we learnt, is usually questioned by the commission when request for their confirmation is sought by the respective registries of the MDAs for subsequent documentation of the ‘newly’ appointed and ‘recruited’ staff and enrolment for the IPPIS capturing of staffers to enable them draw statutory benefits as bonafide civil servants in the federal civil service.
Obscure ministries worst hit
Most of the fake appointment and recruitment letters, sources observed, are largely from the MDAs, especially “very obscure agencies which are largely a drainpipe of public funds as they are hardly noticeable and of any significant socio-economic cum political value”, according to a top Federal Character Commission (FCC) source.
Some of the fake letters obtained by our reporter showed that all cadres of staff allegedly recruited and appointed by the FCSC, were sent directly to the respective ministries as against the statutory practice of recruited technical officers being sent to their designated ministries by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
In two of many instances, computer analysts and other middle level technical officers were sent directly from the FCSC to the then Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in 2017 and in 2019, a development that aroused suspicion from some staff members in the registry department of one of the now dual ministries.
According to a dependable source, one of the staff member who raised an alarm got permission from his superiors to seek the commission’s confirmation of the authenticity of the letters.
Their fears were confirmed as those letters were found to be fake and thereafter seized even as the bearers disappeared into the thin air.
FCSC reacts, initiates verification exercise
A key player in the recruitment and appointment department of the FCSC who wished not to be mentioned said “the commission is fully aware of the prevalence of fake recruitment and appointment letters being paraded about by employment seekers. We are particularly concerned because cases of such fake letters are increasingly embarrassing to the commission. To say the least, it’s terrible.”
“We are particularly concerned that it is rampant and the culprits are mostly from the MDAs. In fact, on an average, we have seized between two and above dozens of such letters weekly and we are working hard to prosecute those found with such incriminating letters”, the source said looking pensive.
Similarly, the Director of Recruitment and Appointment in the commission, Mr Ibrahim el-Yakubu, said the frequency of occurrence of such letters necessitated the FCSC to carry out a service-wide verification exercise for all officers recruited by it from 2013 to 2020.
He said the essence is to curb cases of immorality in recruitment.
The circular FC3171/S.7/T3/101 issued on the 27th of August, 2021, directed all MDAs to carry out the exercise.
Though the verification exercise, which began on the 4th of October ought to have been rounded off on the 9th of October, the director said it is ongoing and therefore could not confirm the outcome of the exercise and what percentage of verified staff were found wanting.
Blueprint can confirm that the exercise has been conducted at the ministries of commerce, industries, information and orientation, education, trade and investment, water resources, OSGF, justice, agriculture, women affairs, science and tech, youth and sports and foreign affairs and interior, among others.
Employment seekers pay between N.8m to N1.5m
Further investigation also revealed that desperate employment seekers are compelled to pay between N800, 000 and N1.5million to officials of the commission and some directors in the MDAs.
According to a source who declined being mentioned by name, some directors in the MDAs would declare vacancies by way of replacements and connived with certain elements in the FCSC to recruit whoever has the means to buy the job.
According to him, at the commission, an officer may demand for payment of N400,000 or more to get the recruitment and appointment letter issued, while the director or whoever may be in charge of wherever the vacancy is declared, demands N500,000 and above, depending on the ‘liquidity’ of the agency or ministry.
“For instance, some months ago, an employment seeker coughed out N1m which he sourced from relatives to ‘buy’ an employment in one teaching institution in one of the states in the North Central region,” the source said.
OHSF queries ministries, ICPC steps in
Following petitions by some concerned staffers of various ministries, the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, we learnt, has on several occasions queried some of the MDAs as was the case when sometimes last year it asked the Ministry of Works to respond to one of the petitions raised by concerned staff member over alleged practice of documenting new recruits with fake letters of appointment, including those whose letters were supposedly seized by the FCSC.
We could not confirm whether the ministry and indeed others queried by the OHSF have acted in line with the request.
Anti-graft agencies step in
However, we can confirm that the anti-graft agencies have stepped into some of the cases.
It was gathered that the anti-graft bodies have received petitions from either the victims of the employment racket or junior staff being singled out by suspected ‘rogue’ senior officers who may have connived with other elements at the FCSC, for undeserved punishment by way of transfer out of the ministry and denial of due benefits.
Already, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related offences Commission (ICPC) acknowledged receiving a number of petitions, including one against the works ministry for such misdemeanour.
