The Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Dr Folasade Yemi- Esan has threatened that civil servants who are outside the country without official permission and still on the payroll will be sacked after the ongoing verification is completed.
She issued the warning on Wednesday while briefing the media during the civil service week, just as it was also confirmed that she would be retiring from the service on August 14 after attaining 60 years of age.
She said she did an overview of the report sent to her and discovered that a number of workers that had gone out of the country and were earning salary were not even in the core ministries but mostly in the parastatals.
She also accused some top officials that were supposed to give information to the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation of complicity, saying it was discovered that they were part of the deal to ensure that the positions were not declared vacant.
“It is a Nigerian thing. We are running hard against the culture that tolerates it. Outsiders don’t know the bashing we get everyday trying to do the right thing. I expect that once the verification report comes, anybody that is not in the country automatically loses his job.
“What we discovered in the last month of that verification is that most of them are now resigning their appointment which is a good development,” Yemi- Esan said.
The HoSF also disclosed that last week she broached the matter with the Permanent Secretary, Common Service Office (SMO), Raymond Omeka, that she had not seen his report on how many workers were affected “because the immediate thing we are going to do based on that information is to stop their salary”.
The HoSF said 1,618 civil servants with ‘fake/illegal’ employment letters were exposed during verification exercises on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) while the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) was probing 3,600 public servants for corruption.
She added that following verification the number of workers on the payroll had been reduced to over 69,308 from over 100,000 that were on the payroll in her first month as head of service.
She said as a result of the exercise, many people who were not supposed to be on the payroll, including retirees, had been cleaned up.
The HoSF will also retire from her position on August 14 after serving in that position for five years, THISDAY gathered.
The Director, Communications Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Mohammed Ahmed disclosed this on Wednesday, saying the parley would be her last scheduled briefing with the media.
Yemi-Esan, a medical doctor, would be 60 years on August 14 this year having been born on August 13, 1964.
She was appointed when serving as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources by President Muhammadu Buhari on September 18, 2019 as the Acting HoSF, following the removal of the former HoSF, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita.
Olawale Ajimotokan
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