THE ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives investigating alleged job racketeering and mismanagement of the Integration Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) has threatened to invoke its legislative power on ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government that have refused to appear before it and enforced compliance. 

The committee gave the warning in a statement on Saturday while re-summoning the representatives of the MDAs. 

It warned that disregard for its invitations amount to contempt of legislature. 

According to the statement, the chairman of the committee, Yusuf Gagdi, said he frowned at the deliberate refusal of several MDAs to appear before the panel despite invitations. 

The committee said it had sent hearing notices through major national dailies and the MDAs’ offices to appear before it between August 24 and 31.  

The affected ministries are supposed to appear before the committee within the stipulated dates. 

The committee is requesting the MDAs to provide it with relevant information relating to recruitment in their agencies. 

But on August 9, about 35 out of 40 MDAs reportedly failed to appear before the committee. 

Gagdi said the committee would, in line with its mandate, engage over 600 MDAs to unearth the extent of the rottenness in the federal civil service. 

Also, the committee had, on Thursday, August 17, threatened to recommend sanctions to the executive arm of government on some erring personnel of the MDAs for flouting the provisions in their recruitment and staff placement. 

Some beneficiaries who had appeared before the committee had confessed to have paid bribes to a former IPPIS desk officer and chief of protocol, Haruna Kolo, to the chairperson of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Muheeba Dankaka, for job offers. 

In a related development, The ICIR on July 4 reported the plan by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to probe directors of MDAs over 70,000 ghost workers. 

“There is a lot of rot in the Federal Civil Service, especially at the top levels. Before now, the MDAs had the autonomy to recruit. Sadly, some abused this process. Some assistant directors forge and issue fake employment letters to desperate job seekers,” the director-general of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPS), Dasuki Arabi, alleged, according to The ICIR report.