By Precious Mark
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoSF), Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, has accepted full responsibility for a major administrative failure after her office mistakenly approved staffing structures and recruitment waivers for a fake presidential agency.
Walson-Jack made the admission on Wednesday in Abuja when she appeared before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the illegal operations of the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), chaired by Hon. Yusuf Gagdi.
Conceding to the vetting oversight, the Head of Service candidly admitted that her office failed to verify the authenticity of forged documents presented by representatives of the group before granting official clearances.
“We now, having seen all the facts and observed all the documents, concede that we ought to have carried out more due diligence in the discharge of the duties of the office in issuing an authorized establishment and a recruitment waiver to the PEAC/PFIPC,” she stated.
She described the fraudulent scheme as an unprecedented security and administrative breach in the history of the nation’s public administration.
“Over the years, this office has dealt with hundreds of requests from both permanent and ad hoc federal government agencies for authorized establishments and recruitment waivers.”
“And I would like to state that we have never encountered a situation like this one in, I would say, almost a century since the beginning of the Federal Civil Service.”
“We believe that, as in every situation in society, criminals always try to stay a step ahead of law enforcement,” Walson-Jack noted.
Clarifying the scope of the lapse, Walson-Jack set the record straight on how far the fraudulent entity penetrated civil service operations, stressing that no staff were posted to the agency, no office premises were provided, and no structural framework was ratified.
“Regarding the issue of deployment, I’ll just summarize: there was no deployment. As for office accommodation, we did not provide any office accommodation. As for organizational structure, we did not issue any organizational structure.”
“Mr. Chairman, sir, the issue that I believe I need to clarify or provide more detail on is the issuance of an authorized establishment and a recruitment waiver,” she explained.
Explaining how civil service officials were deceived during routine manpower budget defenses, Walson-Jack revealed that representatives of the fake body presented fabricated appointment letters and enabling laws that appeared authentic on the surface.
“My office received the letter of appointment and the Establishment Act. Based on those documents and interaction with the representatives of the PEAC and PFIPC, the office went on to issue the authorized establishment and, later, the recruitment waiver,”
she stated.
Walking through the standard procedure for establishing new government bodies, Walson-Jack detailed how approvals are processed concurrently before final recruitment clearance is granted.
“The rationale is that the authorized establishment provides the approved staffing structure and authorized positions, while the provisional recruitment waiver permits the organization to recruit personnel into those positions.”
“It is pertinent to note, Mr. Chairman, that the provisional recruitment waiver is used to process approvals at the Budget Office and the Federal Character Commission. Upon receiving relevant approvals from these two MDAs, the applicant agency returns to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation for its final waiver to recruit,” she told the panel.
She listed the mandatory verification documents required for new agencies, which include the official appointment letter of the Chief Executive Officer or Principal Officer alongside the Establishment Act or enabling legal instrument.
Following her testimony, the Gagdi-led committee confirmed that investigations established the appointment letter and enabling law presented by the suspects were complete forgeries.
The panel is continuing its probe to uncover how the fake council bypassed federal checks.