The Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes on Tuesday alleged that some Federal Government agencies were secretly recruiting workers to cover up for the over-bloated personnel cost.

The Chairman of the committee, Senator Kwari Suleiman, made the allegation when officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) appeared before his panel to defend their 2020 budget. He also alleged that the MDAs were backdating the employment letters.

Senator Suleiman said, “The ongoing secret recruitment was sequel to the directives by President Muhammadu Buhari that salary of civil servants not captured in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System should be stopped by the end of October.

“Some agencies are currently employing people; they are doing so to cover their tracks on salaries; appointments are being given and letters backdated to last year just to cover their tracks.”

Responding to the allegation, the Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, also indicted some academic institutions in the padding of personnel cost.

He revealed that N9.2bn was discovered in the accounts of some MDAs in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He said, “Some MDAs are comfortably hiding some money (about N9.2bn). The money is in the Central Bank of Nigeria. If we did not do our work, it would have been padded as personnel cost. We got them to sign off the money from the CBN. The money is now available for the government to spend

“The affected agencies inflated the personnel cost despite the fact that their workers have been paid. When the ICPC discovered the N9.2bn, they (the agencies) agreed to release the money.”

•Adapted from a PUNCH report

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