The House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee probing job racketeering by Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) on Monday queried the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), Prof. Isaq Oloyede over employment of 300 staff members without public advertisement of the job vacancies.
The panel chaired by Yusuf Gagdi demanded that the agency immediately submit to it the list of all persons employed between 2015-2023.
Gagdi accused JAMB of shortchanging the country, failing to avail Nigerians the opportunity to apply when the jobs were vacant.
He said that from the documents available to the probe panel, the examination body had simply filled job vacancies without due process including shortlisting and interview of job seekers.
He added that the examination body relied on waivers for staff recruitment
without adhering to the provisions of the law on the non-engagement of more than 100 staff annually.
He further added that recruiting about 300 staff through waiver violates the federal character principle, adding that a waiver is to be granted only if an agency is collapsing.
“What makes you think advertising wouldn’t have been better? You have the capacity to screen the people that apply to get better hands to do those jobs. I am asking this because we are most interested in correcting the fraud associated with waivers,” he said.
Responding, Prof Oloyede said the agency did not violate the federal character principle in the job recruitment exercise it conducted from 2015 till date.
In his words, JAMB got a waiver from the relevant agencies to fill existing vacancies, adding that the board had five sets of recruitment in the period under review.
“We used the waiver because we believe the exigency of the time and the nature of our work deserved it. If we were to advertise for the 300, we wouldn’t have been able to meet up with what we needed them for”.
“I believe very strongly that it was very necessary at that time that we recruited and I assure you that we did not surcharge those who were qualified”.
He further explained that the alleged lopsided employment by the examination body was a result of the need to fill vacancies in the over 40 offices nationwide, adding that most of the exercise was done in consultation with state governors.
Gagdi in his ruling urged the agency to submit the nominal roll of its staff recruited from 2015-2023 in tabular form on a state-by-state basis within four weeks.
