The Federal Government of Nigeria has called for the immediate suspension of 3,000 workers for alleged issuance of fake certificates to gain entry into the Federal Civil Service.
Speaking at a media discussion in commemoration of the 2022 Civil Service Week which held in Abuja on Wednesday, Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, said the Federal Civil Service made this fresh discovery during an ongoing certificate verification exercise.
Hence, the Commission gave an immediate order to have the 3,000 workers suspended from service for an undisclosed period of time.
Dr. Yemi-Esan recalled a similar incident in April 2022, when the Commission embarked on the usual service-wide verification exercises. At least 1,500 workers were found with forged appointment letters admitting them into the Federal Civil Service.
Over 1,000 of the suspected personnel with dubious certificates were from the Ministry of Information, while 500 others were traced to other ministries, departments and agencies. The suspects were immediately delisted from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) to serve as deterrent to others intending to make similar decisions.
Speaking on why there were no recent recruitment exercises from the Civil Service, she explained that the Commission had over 76,000 workers in the core service, which was a lot to go by.
She stated that her strategy to embark on verification exercises has over time, proven to be an effective purgative to flush out illegal workers on the government’s payroll, bringing down the figure from 100,000 to 76,000.
The Head of Service also said it was impossible to have all graduates absorbed in the civil service, as the Commission was already overstaffed, citing the incident in 2020 during Covid-19, where some staff were told to stay home for a period of time, due to overpopulation at the work place.
