Ejiofor Alike
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has denied report that it sacked 48 workers, one year after recruitment, clarifying that it did not sack any staff.
In a statement issued yesterday by the NEMA’s Head of Media and Public Relations, Manzo Ezekiel, the agency said it “only correctly nullified a questionable and hurriedly arranged recruitment that was marred by irregularities and lack of adherence to established procedures for recruitment into the public service”.
The statement added that those who claimed to have been sacked were candidates of that spurious exercise.
The statement disclosed that although approval was obtained from the NEMA Governing Council for recruitment in 2018, there are other complementary and critical procedures that were not followed, which effectively invalidated the exercise.
“These include obtaining approval from the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation with regards to established vacancies and manpower budget. The supervising ministry of NEMA, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, was also completely excluded from the recruitment. The standard protocol dictates that the Ministry, which was created and assigned a supervisory role over the Agency in 2019, must be briefed and involved in such exercises,” the statement explained.
Reacting to the allegation that salaries of the said candidates were unpaid for one year, the statement argued that NEMA does not pay salaries of Public Servants.
It explained that the confirmation of recruitment and payment of the salaries of a Public Servant on a continuous monthly basis follows established standards, including due recruitment process in accordance with Public Service Rules, stressing that if successful, the candidate’s data is captured by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
NEMA stated that on formal resumption of duties, the candidate’s payment transfer details are captured by IPPIS for regular payment of salaries and allowances.
“To emphasise, the Federal Government of Nigeria will neither enrol nor pay the salaries of any candidates of a questionable recruitment that failed to follow this due process as was the case in the said 2019 exercise,” the statement explained.
The agency also clarified that the roles of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) were intended to give credibility to the exercise, adding however, that the participation of the FCC alone does not vitiate the responsibilities of the Supervising Ministry or the statutory roles of the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
It also clarified that the involvement of the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) in the recruitment exercise is not a necessary condition in the recruitment process as enshrined in the Public Service Rules (PSR).
“PSIN was only engaged by NEMA as a Consultant for the purpose of conducting examination for prospecting candidates. This does not substitute or obviate the roles of the Office of the Civil Service of the Federation or the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development as the Supervisory Ministry of NEMA in the recruitment exercise,” the statement added.
NEMA said it was unfortunate that the affected candidates were issued Appointment Letters without exhausting the conditions enshrined in the Public Service Rules (PSR) and the Guidelines for Appointment.
