The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee probing the alleged job racketeering and gross mismanagement in federal ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) has accused the management of the National Institute for Sports and the National Office for Technology Innovation and Acquisition of lopsided appointment of personnel to the disadvantage of other states.
Chairman of the Committee, Yusuf Adamu Gagdi said at the resume hearing of the committee that recruitment carried out by the two agencies did not reflect federal character.
Director General of the National Sports Institute, Prof. Olawale Moronkola had told the committee that they were given a waiver to employ 22 staff during their last recruitment exercise.
However, the Committee Chairman questioned why six of the 22 staff employed were from his home state of Oyo when the positions were supposed to have been spread to the 36 states and the FCT, or shared to the six geopolitical zones.
The Committee, however, asked the Institute to provide a detailed analysis of the state representation of workers in the Institute And how it plans to address the imbalance in employment.
However, the Director General of the National Institute of Technology Acquisition and Innovation, Dr. Danazunmi Mohammed Ibrahim told the committee that the Institute had already put in place plans to address the imbalance in its employment.
He said the Federal Character Commission had already drawn its attention to the imbalance in its staff representation and asked them to correct it.
He said, “We are aware that some states like Bayelsa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Yobe, and a few others have no representation in the agency. We already plan on how to address that.”
He said the institute required more than 30 senior staff to be employed, but got approval for only 23, adding that between 2015 till date, the institute has employed only 45 staff.
While noting that the challenges are documented, he pleaded for the committee’s assistance as the institute has an establishment position of close to 300 staff members.
“And in 2020 we were able to get financial provisions to employ, when we started the process Covid-19 came, then a circular was issued that we had to hold on, and at the end of the year the whole money left. It took us almost three years to be able to get this fund to start the employment process, so we had to come back to ‘square one’.
“And up till now, staff are going, the younger ones are not coming up, the older ones are going. So there is a serious issue of succession challenge in the office, and we feel the committee may be able to assist us. But currently, we have an approved establishment from the Head of Service to employ 90 staff and we are in the process of seeing how we get the waivers and necessary funding.”
