Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, and former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, says he is unaware of how workers are being recruited into the Ministry.
Akpabio disclosed this on Thursday while addressing the Senate Committee on Niger Delta during the Ministry’s 2022 budget defense exercise.
The Minister, who was reacting to why the wage bill of the Ministry rose from N1.4 billion in 2021 to N1.6 billion in the 2022 appropriation proposal, said he could not recall the nominal roll of the entirety of staff working under his Ministry.
A member of the Committee, Senator Mohammed Hassan Gussau representing Zamfara Central, had questioned the abnormal increase in the expenses of the Ministry’s budget, demanding to know if new staff were recruited within the year under review.
In reply, Akpabio said, “I see new staff every day. I don’t know how they are recruited. The Federal Civil Service Commission send them to us.
“I have had to question this before. They keep sending us new staff. We are not part of the recruitment exercise. The Civil Service Commission is the body responsible for that”.
He added that the Ministry also had some staff promotions within the year, and movements from other ministries were also captured.
Consequently, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, mandated that the nominal roll of the Niger Delta Ministry, which captures details of both junior and senior staff, with their remunerations, be forwarded to them.
The Ministry’s 2022 total budget is estimated at N28.1billion against N24.3billion for the 2021 fiscal year.
