In a desperate attempt to balance the accounts which is believed to be in the red, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senator Bala Mohammed is alleged to have concluded plans to use the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to carry out a secret employment of no fewer than 500 workers before the end of April 2015.
Information pieced together by Per Second News indicates that the planned secret recruitment is in clear contravention of the rule that placed an embargo on employment of new staff and an attempt to cover up some expenditures that cannot be reconciled.
The letters of employment which are prearranged with beneficiaries are backdated by about six months with a view to give the impression that the recruitment was carried out before the election.
It was further gathered that members of the establishment unit were called to attend an emergency meeting slated for Friday April 24, 2015 ostensibly to approve the employment and commence issuance of letters to approved candidates.
The planned recruitment of the workers is being carried out under the cover of filling existing vacancies identified by the Establishment Department of the FCDA.
With barely 36 days for the incoming administration to assume governance of the country, the Establishment department of the FCDA has been directed to attend a meeting to approve the recruitment of the staff.
A top management staff of the FCDA, who pleaded anonymity said the planned recruitment is nothing but a fraud designed to make the incoming administration inherit huge recurrent expenditure.
Per Second News can authoritatively confirm that the planned meeting of the Establishment department to ratify the proposed secret employment has set tongues wagging, as top bureaucrats are alleging that the names of those to be employed are mostly candidates of PDP top politicians.
It was further gathered that qualified candidates who had earlier applied and submitted CVs for employment and were shortlisted by the Establishment department last year are not being considered in the on-going exercise.
A top management staff of the FCDA told our correspondent on condition of anonymity that if the exercise is allowed to go on, it will create problems for the incoming government of the APC particularly against the backdrop of the fact that it was not captured in the 2015 Appropriation Bill.
According to him; “What Bala Mohammed should be doing right now is preparing his hand over notes and not employing new staff to compound the problems to be inherited by the General Buhari government. The out-going FCT Minister should not be allowed to recruit cronies and candidates of politicians who have lost out in the political equation.
“Having failed an election, the Bala Mohammed-led administration of the FCT is only interested in serving the interest of PDP politicians who have now found themselves in political gutters,” said the top bureaucrat.
When contacted on the matter, Spokesman of the FCDA, Richard Nduul, said the allegation is not true saying; “”there is nothing like that.”
Per Second News