FG to Sanction NNPC, FIRS, and Others For Backdoor Recruitment

The federal government has disclosed that it will sanction the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) among other MDA involved in backdoor recruitment. 

Investors King learnt that other big agencies alleged to have engaged in backdoor recruitment include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). 

The numerous recruitments are done despite the embargo put in place by the office of the head of civil service.

Investigations showed that while some agencies issued employment letters to jobseekers without recourse to the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Civil Service Commission, others simply replaced retired or dead officials with friends and family members.

It could be recalled that in 2019, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was reported to have employed many individuals without following the due recruitment process. This secret recruitment received condemnation from far and wide including from pressure and regional groups. 

One of the pressure groups, the Niger Delta Youth Consort of Nigeria protested against the NNPC for excluding the region and southerners in the secret recruitment.

Although NNPC denied the secret recruitment claiming that what the company did was fill the vacancies with personnel who were already in the system and were qualified rather than recruiting fresh ones from outside the system.

In the same vein, the Federal Inland Revenue Service was also enmeshed in a recruitment scandal in 2021 after it emerged that it secretly engaged 2,000 workers, a development that put a strain on its budget.

This was made known through a petition written to the Chairman of FIRS, Muhammed Namu by the Nigerian Civil Service Union.

On its part, the Nigeria Customs Service denied engaging in secret recruitment, stating that all its recruitment are often published, however, there has been an issue of lopsidedness in many of the recruitment made by the service with a significant advantage to the northern part of the country.