IPPIS Job Racketeering: 35 MDAs Ignore House Of Reps Committee

No fewer than 36 federal Ministries, Department, and Agencies (MDAs) refused to appear before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating an alleged job racketeering and mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) on Tuesday.

Naija News gathered that the committee chairman, Yusuf Gagdi, berated the agencies for their failure to show up, saying they were not respectful of constituted authority.

This platform reported on Monday that a former Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) desk officer, Haruna Kolo, openly admitted to collecting bribes in exchange for promises of jobs on behalf of the embattled Federal Character Commission (FCC) chairman, Farida Dankaka.

Kolo made the revelation on Monday when he appeared before the House of Representative ad-Hoc committee investigating federal ministries, departments and agencies, parastatals, and tertiary institutions on mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) over the allegation of collecting money from job seekers.

The IPPIS official revealed that he collected over N75 million through his personal Eco Bank account and paid it in cash to the FCC Chairman in several installments based on the instruction from her.

Mr. Kolo added that he resigned from FCC on the 2nd of November 2022 to begin work at Asset Management Cooperation of Nigeria (AMCON). However, he still received a salary from FCC on two occasions which he claimed he reported to the FCC Human Resources officer but was told it was not an issue and would be handled.

However, the committee’s chairman on Tuesday said, “Forty agencies are supposed to appear before the committee, but only five are here.”

The chairman noted that the five agencies that showed up were the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), the National Teachers Institute (NTI), the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), and the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NPTIN), among others.

Gagdi said he had earlier asked the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Budget Office (BO), IPPIS, and the Federal Character Commission (FCC) to provide desk officers that would be on the committee to give requisite information.

However, after the agencies failed to appear on Tuesday, he said their directors should, subsequently, come to provide the information needed instead of the desk officers.

“if the desk officers of head of service, budget office, ippis are not here, then we should summon their directors to come and sit here so that we can do the work together,” Gagdi said.

He faulted the agencies, saying they were applying for waivers due to their recruitment without advertising the same, adding that such is usually used to perpetrate fraud.

The committee chairman further pointed out that some of the MDA’s went as far as recruiting about 150, instead of the stipulated 100 staff.