The newly sworn-in Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, on Wednesday, vowed to make a scapegoat of job racketeers and those engaged in other corrupt practices in the federal civil service.
“We will do everything possible in collaboration with some of the intelligence and security agencies to make a few scapegoats and communicate a new face for the civil service commission,” Olaopa told State House, correspondents, shortly after he and 11 other council members took the oath of office before President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
In September 2023, the House of Representatives said it had been investigating job racketeering claims in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies and abuse of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
It said some staff members of government MDAs have been extorting unsuspecting and desperate job seekers of millions of naira in exchange for jobs.
Yusuf Gagdi, who chairs the committee on job racketeering in federal MDAs, parastatals and tertiary institutions and mismanagement of the IPPIS, revealed that some personnel of the Federal Character Commission, an agency created to ensure fairness, equity and transparency and accountability in the allocation of federal vacancies was neck-deep in the misconduct.
Although the investigation is ongoing, the ad-hoc committee had discovered gross violations of the FCC Act by top management through indiscriminate employment waivers to MDAs, lopsided employment and blatant extortion and sale of job vacancies, Gadgi noted.
The lawmaker had said the FCC saga came to light when a former IPPIS desk officer at the agency, Mr Haruna Kolo, confessed to collecting over N75m from employment applicants on the instruction of the FCC chairman, Dr Farida Dankaka.
But speaking on Wednesday, Olaopa expressed displeasure at the “cash and carry reputation,” adding that a crackdown on corruption “will be our first charge.”
“We will all be committed to bringing back institutional values to the public service of Nigeria,” he affirmed.
Olaopa expressed worry about the misplaced identity of the commission, adding that by the conception of the FCSC, it is supposed to be a beacon of integrity.
Therefore, he promised that the new leadership would work hard to increase the capability of the Federal Civil Service, emphasising that the newly constituted team would modernise and deploy technology to the service.
He noted, “In the civil service commission, we will be able to rebrand this commission; we want a commission that represents the integrity face of the civil service.
“We want a commission that promotes the cherished value of the public service in everything it does.”
The new chairman described the allegations of job racketeering as “very disturbing,” saying the commission is “supposed to be a beacon of integrity and those who founded the commission in the glorious days of the service gave the civil service great name.”
“We need to reposition; we need to beef up the capability. We need to modernise and deploy technology and re-institute professionalism.
“We need to move the civil service to a position where it could help the government deliver and that we are poised to be able to do,” he added.
On his part, the substantive Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Dr Musa Aliyu, promised to abide by the law in discharging his duties at the anti-graft agency.
