The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, is invoved in a scandal over the illegal employment exercise carried out by its executive chairman, Mr. Babatunde Fowler.
Fowler has been found to have overseen a recruitment exercise that did not follow the rules of employment in the public service.
The 349 roles at the Federal Inland Revenue Service were not advertised, according to SaharaReporters, and the recruitment exercise was carried out in secrecy.
Not only that, the new FIRS recruitment did not follow federal character principles with some regions and states being short changed while some were “rewarded” according to the infamous “97% vs 5%” principles of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to investigations the new recruits were inducted to the FIRS in Abuja on Wednesday, June 15, 2016.
It is gathered that is not the first time Mr. Fowler had shown flouted civil service rules. Earlier in his tenure, which began in August 2015, Fowler was accused of hiring 250 new staff without obtaining the approval of the Federal Character Commission as required by law.
Fowler dismissed the allegations at the time claiming that he had not hired full-time staff but “consultants”.
Secret Recruitment List At FIRS
The detailed list first reported by SaharaReporters, shows states of origin, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, academic qualifications, recommended ranks and proposed duty stations of the new FIRS recruits.
Six of the new FIRS staff are deputy directors, 10 are assistant directors, 34 are deputy managers, while the rest are senior managers, managers, assistant managers and officers. All the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory are represented on the list. An initial review shows Akwa Ibom State got 6 slots while Katsina has 18, Kano 15, and Borno 23. Gombe and Ondo have 13 slots. Lagos State has 14 slots.
Spokesman for the FIRS, Mr. Wahab Gbadamosi had emailed an official response to an news website on the controversial recruitment exercise last week saying, “Please note that requisite agencies of government approved the targeted recruitment by the FIRS. Due process in recruiting into a federal government agency- was followed.”
Gbadamosi extolled the FIRS as “a conscientious, law-abiding institution which adheres to statutory rules and procedures” and then said that the press should allow the FIRS “concentrate on its duty to collect revenue of N4. 9 trillion to meet its 2016 target”.
Gbadamosi, however, failed to indicate if the vacancies were advertised and indicate the names of the “relevant agencies” that approved the illegal recruitment exercise.
The list—which includes some of Nigeria’s most prominent political figures—was released to SaharaReporters following its June 15 report exposing the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Babatunde Fowler, as overseeing the recruitment exercise in violation of Nigerian laws and in further harm to President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption initiative.
The list of sponsors includes aides of President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, political operatives of the All Progressives Congress (APC), federal legislators, the Federal Character Commission (FCC), as well as top officials of FIRS itself. Also on the list are aides of the traditional ruler of Lagos, former President Shehu Shagari, and former Head of State Yakubu Gowon. That broad span demonstrates the depth and magnitude of the illegal employment menace in the country.
As in the case of the illegal hires of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, which was exposed by SaharaReporters three months ago, Mr. Fowler illegally recruited no fewer than 349 new FIRS staff members by deliberately ignoring existing Nigerian regulations, laws, and guidelines for public jobs.
According to the list, Mr. Fowler himself sponsored the highest number of illegal hires, with at least 89 recruits being attributed to him. As the corruption spread in the service, the Special Advisor to Mr. Fowler sponsored no fewer than eight illegal hires, while the Coordinating Directors of the Support Services Group, the Domestic Tax Group, and the Compliance and Standards Group (CSG) also took turns.
Sources speaking to SaharaReporters revealed that two hires—Rasheeda Seghosime and Danjuma Seghosime—are the children of FIRS CSG Coordinating Director Queensley Seghosime.
In a practice that parallels the gerrymandering and manipulation in the illegal CBN hires, the Seghosime siblings are curiously listed as being from two different States: Rasheeda listed under Jigawa State, and Danjuma under Delta State.
Another powerful political figure who repeatedly sponsored candidates is Senator Owan Enoh, (Cross River Central). The list shows Mr. Enoh as having sponsored no fewer than 60 illegal hires. Another lawmaker, Babangida Ibrahim, who represents Katsina State in the House of Representatives, also appears to have sponsored no fewer than 10 people.
Sources with knowledge of the illegal hiring practices at the FIRS revealed to SaharaReporters that Mr. Enoh and Mr. Ibrahim, both of whom are the Chairmen on the Senate and House Finance Committees, worked with Mr. Fowler to distribute the public job spots to members of those committees.
This source explained that Mr. Enoh and Mr. Babangida may not even know all the names attributed to them as sponsors because they were intermediaries between Mr. Fowler at FIRS and the Finance Committee members in the Senate and House.
Neither Mr. Enoh or Mr. Ibrahim returned SaharaReporters calls when our correspondent sought comment on these developments.
No fewer than 35 illegal hires were sponsored by the “VP”, according to the sponsor list and FIRS sources speaking with our correspondent. However, according to one source, “I do not know whether these people were sponsored by the Vice President himself or people in his office.”
SaharaReporters spoke to Mr. Osinbajo’s spokesman Laolu Akande, who promised to respond to our inquiries on Friday but did not do so throughout the weekend.
The Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, is listed as having sponsored no fewer than 27 illegal FIRS hires and was described as having enjoyed a “hands-on” role in selecting all hires.
A source at FIRS told SaharaReporters that, unlike many of the recruits sponsored by Mr. Enoh, SGF Lawal knew many of those he sponsored and was instrumental in selecting them to fill those spots. This source also added that Mr. Lawal was supposed to investigate allegations that FIRS was hiring people illegally as far back as April, but “simply ignored the issue.” It was also learned that at least 4 of the 27 illegal hires Mr. Lawal sponsored came from his wife.
Mr. Lawal told SaharaReporters by text and email that he was categorically certain that he had no role in the illegal hires and that reports linking him were false.
President Buhari’s Senior Special Advisers to the National Assembly, Kawu Sumaila and Ita Enang, are also listed as sponsors in the FIRS hires. Mr. Sumaila, SSA to the House of Representatives, sponsored five job slots; Mr. Enang, eight. Sources explained that Mr. Fowler provided these slots to Mr. Sumaila and Mr. Enang as a gesture of good faith concerning future requests.
Sources explained the keywords used to convey who was sponsoring which illegal candidate:
· CD meant Coordinating Director in various FIRS groups
· EC stood for Executive Chairman, meaning Mr. Fowler;
· DG BPSR meant Joe Abah, the Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms;
· FCC stood for the Federal Character Commission, the Commissioners of which received job slots to distribute in exchange for ignoring the fact that FIRS was not publicly advertising the jobs.
Sahara Reporters Media
SaharaReporters sources could not confirm the code words “Baba” or “Mama”, which sponsored at least 20 and 10 jobs respectively, but curiously a duplicate name sponsored by “Mama” was also listed as being sponsored by “Small Villa.” It is believed that the code names were referring to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is widely called Baba, while “Mama” might be his wife, Hajia Aisha Buhari. Our sources could not confirm to whom or what “Small Villa” represented, either.
As in the case of CBN Governor Emiefiele, sour sources explained to that Mr. Fowler was the mastermind for this monumental illegl employment scheme as a way for him to maintain control of FIRS even if he got sacked by President Buhari.
“FIRS not only has a massive budget but if Tunde were to leave he would still be able to influence the FIRS,” one source explained.
He added: “Tunde would be able to peddle influence and buy favors from Nigerian companies to give them assistance manipulating FIRS” after he leaves.
Sources from the FIRS also explained to our correspondent that most of these illegal hires were relatives or friends of the sponsors but that some job slots were sold for money.
Other names which are listed as having sponsored some of the illegal FIRS jobs are the Attorney General to the Federation, Abubakar Malami; Chief Pius Akinyelure; Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu; former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon; the Head of Service, Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita; the former FIRS Executive Chairman Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru; Minister of Information Lai Mohammed; the Minister of State for Planning Zainab Ahmed; the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu; former FIRS boss Alhaji Kabir Mashi; and APC Deputy Publicity Secretary Timi Frank.
According to SaharaReporters’ investigation, six of the new recruits are of the position of deputy director, while 10 are assistant directors. Thirty-four others are of the rank of deputy manager, while the rest are made up of senior managers, managers, assistant managers and officers.
The full list of sponsors and illegal hires can be viewed below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4D70b07iGmMNVdXeTI4VVBoV3M/view
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