The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating fraudulent recruitment by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) has uncovered, among other things, how a Board chairman allegedly recruited 1,000 people from his state while a former minister recruited over 100 people from his state.

The committee, chaired by Hon. Oluwole Oke, said Thursday, in Abuja, when it commenced its investigative hearing, that Chairmen of Boards of MDAs allegedly personalised the recruitment carried out between 2017 and 2018.

He expressed concerns over the alleged nepotism and inducement that characterised the recruitment of job seekers during the period.

The Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, who was represented by Mrs. Ajayi Magdalene, was also made to answer questions over the recruitment of 2,860 personnel in 2017 and 5,397 in 2018 as against the 97 waivers approved.

Ajayi said the payroll of the Accountant-General’s office had the exact number of Civil Servants that they were paying, adding, that “in terms of manpower, the manpower budget for all the ministries, parastatals and all the agencies is done or overseen by the Head of Civil Service; and so every year we have a meeting where we say this is the establishment you can have, that is the number of officers you can have in this agency.

“And based on that, budget is made. So, it’s not just for the core ministries. It also involved the parastatals; that’s why we can give you the figures that we have here. (THISDAY)