How Nigerian govt uncovered 1,500 workers with fake employment letters, their penalties

Nigeria’s government has detected 1,500 workers who joined the Federal Civil Service with fake appointment letters.

Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folasade Yemi-Esan made the disclosure in Abuja, on Tuesday.

She stated that those identified would be removed from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

Yemi-Esan spoke at the National Policy Dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in Public Office Recruitment in Nigeria.

Over 1,000 persons were discovered in one ministry, while 500 others were found in other ministries, departments and agencies.

She said the IPPIS helped to track fake employment, less efficient and unqualified government personnel.

“In the past year, in one ministry alone, over 1,000 individuals bearing fake letters of appointment were detected.

“The office recently received a report, from the Federal Civil Service Commission, of over 500 persons in various MDAs in possession of fake letters of appointment.

“Following the the Service-Wide Verification Exercise for officers recruited from 2013 – 2020, the commission also requested the suspension of salaries of over 3,000 officers across the MDAs,” she stated.

Yemi-Esan disclosed that they failed to appear for the exercise and won’t be paid pending further clearance.

As of March, over 380,000 officers had been captured on IPPIS – 66,000 and 320,000 for core and non-core MDAs respectively.

Yemi-Esan lamented how corruption thrives in recruitment processes, vowing that the government would clean up the system to reduce job seekers’ contact with public officials.