INVESTIGATION: Uneasy calm as illegal recruitment, promotion scandal rock NIMC
NEWS DIGEST – The National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, under the leadership of Engr. Aliyu Aziz Abubakar, is reportedly mired in illegal recruitment, non-payment of salaries/allowances, illegal promotions as well as various other disregards for the statutes binding the commission’s operations.
A document sighted by the NewsDigest, revealed that in 2017, the NIMC conducted a recruitment and promotion exercises which was later found to be illegal as it run against the code/statutes establishing the commission.
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In the said promotion exercise, according to the document, some individuals who joined the commission for far less than 3 years – yet-to-be-confirmed staff members – were given double promotions, while some staff members that joined the commission on the same day were given different types of promotion.
This is a flagrant abuse of Rule 020701 of the Public Service Rules which requires that senior officers must have to spend a minimum of 3 years on a post before being considered eligible for promotion.
A source at the NIMC headquarters who pleaded for anonymity, told the NewsDigest that, “no promotion examination or appraisal was done before the promotion was concluded.
“To this end, it has been difficult to understand the parameter that was used to give some double, some single and some none.
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“There are still some staff members in the commission that have been stagnated on the same level for over 10 years.
“They are said to have joined the commission with qualifications lesser than a degree. There should be a particular cadre these categories of people are meant to attain before being barred.
“These categories of people are in other agencies other than NIMC and they are enjoying career progression, but NIMC has refused to allow them get to the peak of their careers and now retirement is knocking on their doors.
“Some have served for close to 30 years and still on Grade Level 7. These amounts to gross injustice on their path and it will be difficult to get the best out of such employees.” the source lamented.
Poor staff welfare
In the course of our investigation, we recorded concerns raised by the majority of the NIMC staffers concerning the poor welfare packages they have been forced to grapple with others they ears.
The NewsDigest gathered that in March 2014, a Grade Level 8, Step 2 officer used to earn over N84,000 in the commission, while as at today, a staffer of that same level earns nothing more than N50,000.
This newspaper also gathered that sharp cut in salaries stemmed from the serial illegal recruitments conducted by the present leadership of the NIMC which inadvertently overburden the commissions’ budget.
The NewsDigest gathered that a man who is suspected to be a relative to the DG/CEO of the commission, was said to have been recruited on Grade Level 15, which is a violation of Rule 020101 (b) (ii) of the Public Service Rules.
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It was also gathered that the staff salaries were reduced so as to get fund to pay these illegally recruited staff, since they were not budgeted for.
“The Staff Union’s unit chairmen have always been bribed with undeserved benefits and this has incapacitated him from fighting for our course,” one of the staff members told the NewsDigest.
“Recently, after several outcries by the staff of the NIMC, ASCSN threatened NIMC management with an indefinite strike, gave a 21-day ultimatum to the management and copied some other agencies such as the National Assembly, Ministry of Labour, Budget office, The Nigerian Police, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, among others. Series of closed-door meetings had been held and the ASCSN NIMC Unit excos were all part of the meeting.
“The staff impressed on the Unit Excos their demands and that they should not return with anything less of their demands. The 21 days has lapsed and nothing is heard about strike again. Instead, they returned with a watery resolution with these agencies.
“Vague promises with no timeline for actions were all that was given to staff. This made the staff to lack trust in the processes and arrangements,” the source added.
“The ASCSN that has wielded power and led strike in some agencies like Mass literacy, National Health Insurance Scheme etc. has refused to follow the same pattern in the case of NIMC.
“The Lion in them has turned a mere pussy cat in the case of NIMC and they have forever been preaching patience to NIMC staff.
“This has been perceived to be as a result of the fact that Engr. Aziz was the one who introduced this Union to staff when he resumed office.
“He ousted the previous Union and brought in ASCSN, and since then ASCSN has refused to deal decisively with staff matters.”
“Whichever way one looks at it, gross; inefficiency; incompetence; corruption, and wickedness has been displayed by NIMC management.
“All these have consequently resulted in low productivity of staff and poor service delivery to the public. If nothing is done about the state of things in the commission, NIMC will never live up to its expectation even in centuries to come.” another source revealed.
It was also gathered that the Engr. Aziz led administration of the commission is yet to pay allowances of two weeks local training and First 28 days allowance, to recruited staff of 2013 for over six years running.
According to a finding by the NewsDigest, an ultimatum was issued to the management in November 2019, precisely on the 8th, to address the welfare concerns at the expense of an industrial action.
The management was said to have agreed to pay the first 28 days allowance in batches of 10 persons per month.
“We all rejected but the compromised union signed the resolution. We have over 800 employees eligible for that allowance, if u start paying 10 persons per month, it means by 2025, management will still be paying this 28 days to eligible staff. Who does that? The last person would have waited for 12 years to be paid first 28 days allowance,” a source told this reporter.
Similarly, findings also showed that there had been zero training since the mass recruitment that happened in 2013.
In fact, our investigation revealed that the lack of proper welfare led to the death of 12 staff members in 2019 alone. In the middle of the year, it was said that two staff members died consecutively which prompted the unit union chairman to issue an ultimatum in June 2019.
When the News Digest contacted the NIMC spokesperson, Mrs Jamila Mohammed denied comments on the matter, referring this reporter to a General Manager in the agency, who said a letter of introduction and enquiries should be submitted at the agency’s headquarters before a reply could be given.
