FG warns agencies against recruitment without approval

Federal Government has warned that it would no longer tolerate massive recruitments into agencies without approval.

The warning came on the heels of recent approval of the new minimum wage by President Bola Tinubu.  

Permanent Secretary, State House, Olufunsho Adebiyi, spoke for the government at the opening of a one-day retreat organised by the State House Management and Heads of Government Agencies under its supervision, as part of preparations for the issuance of the call circular for the commencement of the 2025 budget exercise.  

Adebiyi said: ‘’We now have new public service rules that define when to promote, who is due for promotion, mode of promotion, procedure and conduct of promotion examinations and strict adherence to public service rules.’ ’ 

According to the permanent secretary, the retreat, the first of its kind under this administration, also deliberated on the need for strict enforcement of government policies and sanctions for defaulting agencies.  

‘’The retreat apprised CEOs of government agencies on types of appointments into the public service, criteria and qualifications for these appointments, procedures for procurement process, budget preparation, and the monitoring and evaluation of government policies,’’ he added.    

In his opening remarks, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Hadeija, urged heads of agencies to be guided by the extant provisions that establish their organisations. 

Hadeija, who represented the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, emphasised the importance of adhering to objectives initiated by the State House management, particularly in institutionalising e-governance to improve operations. 

He commended the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, for an insightful presentation, titled: ‘Delineation of roles and functions between the management and the agency and its supervising entity: A prerequisite for good relationship and effective delivery of mandate’.   

‘’This is a very important retreat to remind senior civil servants, new appointees and heads of agencies about the civil service regulations.  
  

‘’These regulations can be quite tedious, and the Permanent Secretary, State House, was right when he said some of these issues would come back to his table.  

‘’This underscores the importance of reminding ourselves of the procedural issues that have to comply with in governance and administration,’’ he said.  

In an overview, the authorities explained that the retreat was designed to foster collaboration and create synergy in the operations of state and agencies under its supervision. 

The agencies whose establishing Acts place them under the supervision of the State House include the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), Nigeria Agriculture and Land Development Agency (NALDA), Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President (OCEAP) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). 

Others are Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), National Centre for the Coordination of Early Warning and Response Mechanism, National Council on Climate Change (NATCCC), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) and the National Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC).