Mohammed, yesterday gave an insight into
how some top civil servants found a way of
compromising the federal government’s salary
portal through devious recruitments. According to the minister, some top civil
servants, after issuing fake employment
letters to about 400 job seekers upon receipt
of N400,000 each (N160 million) from them,
included the names of the applicants in the
Integrated Payroll and Personnel System (IPPIS) of the federal government, before the
fraud was discovered. Mohammed disclosed this in Lagos, yesterday,
during a meeting with some selected On-Air-
Personalities. The meeting was part of the
minister’s five-day consultation with critical
stakeholders in the media industry. He said already, some top civil servants had
been dismissed by the Federal Government
for their role in the job fraud and had been
handed over to the police for prosecution. Speaking in a telephone interview with
LEADERSHIP Sunday yesterday, the minister
disclosed that the affected civil servants were
staff of the National Council for Arts and
Culture (NCAC), one of the parastatals in the
ministry, where the fraud was perpetrated. He further clarified that the affected staff were
sacked before his appointment as information
and culture minister but added that when he
came in as minister, he upheld the
recommendations of the disciplinary panel as it
concerned staff in the ministry. “I had to deal with the disciplinary measures
with respect to those in the ministry. I upheld
the recommendations of the disciplinary
committee against those involved,” he added. The minister had during the meeting said, “The
first scandal I met in one of the parastatals
when I assumed office was the illegal
employment of 400 people. This scandal
started with very senior officers up to level 17
in that department. They sent out letters and text messages asking people to apply for jobs
for a fee of N400,000 and they were given
letters of employment. “They did not stop there. They invited these
people to go and be captured on the IPPIS and
they even took cameras to hotels to get them
captured. At the end of the day the bubble
burst. “One of the victims told these officials, you
cannot take my money and still disengage me.
I have a valid letter. That is how we got to
know that there is a dedicated account these
people pay to. Of course, we dismissed these
officials and we even handed them over to the police.” The minister said that the incident brought to
fore, the loopholes in the IPPIS and how it had
been compromised by unscrupulous elements. He however assured that the President
Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was
doing all it could to make the IPPIS tamper-
proof and guard it from people who might want
to load ghost workers on it. He described On-Air Personalities as
important in the media industry and urged them
to leverage on their platforms to educate the
people on government`s policies. The minister said the current war against
corruption was a war of survival for the nation
and urged all Nigerians to give it the necessary
support ‘’President Buhari is leading the war against
corruption right from the front, and we implore
all Nigerians to support him. We appeal to you
to leverage on your important platforms to
support this war by ensuring that Nigerians are
well informed about the evils of corruption,’’ he said, adding: ‘’This is not Buhari’s war. This is
not APC’s war. This is Nigeria’s war and failure
is not an option.’’ Explaining why Nigeria must fight corruption to
a standstill, Mohammed said it deprives the
people the opportunity of reaping the dividends
of democracy, in addition to stifling good
governance. ‘’When the money meant to construct roads
are embezzled or misappropriated, the end
results are that the roads are not built and the
people suffer and even die in avoidable road
accidents. When the money meant for
education is looted, we are unable to provide quality education for our children. When the
money meant to fight terrorism is looted or
diverted for prayers, publicity, purchase of
land for maritime university or simply to rally
support for a political party, soldiers die
needlessly, hordes of widows emerge and people are pushed from their communities to
IDP camps. ‘’These, in stark reality, are the costs of
corruption. We must give a face to corruption
and stop talking about it in the abstract.
Nigerians must know that when they celebrate
corrupt people, they are celebrating their own
deprivations, the denial of the dividends of democracy and the endemic poverty in our
society,’’ Mohammed said. To further illustrate the evil of corruption, he
made a comparative analysis of of the number
of ‘Dasukigate’ beneficiaries and the amount
they collected from the office of the National
Security Adviser in 2015 on one hand, and the
list of projects and amount across the nation in the Zonal Intervention Project of 2015
Appropriation Act. ‘’Whereas the sum of N51.829 billion was
appropriated for 1,278 projects in the Zonal
Intervention Projects for 2015, a total of 21
individuals and companies benefited from the
Dasukigate to the tune of N54.659 billion as we
know so far. The implication, therefore, is that the amount received by 21 individuals and
companies is more than the 2015 Zonal
Intervention Project budget by N2.829 billion
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