The Taraba State Government has suspended two senior civil servants for alleged job racketeering, while the duo include a staff member of the State Civil Service Commission (CSC), while the other is in the office of the state accountant-general.
Penpushing reports that Head of the Civil Service (HOS), Paul Tino, made this known to journalists in Jalingo, explaining that Governor Agbu Kefas had directed him and the accountant-general, Gaius Danjuma edited staff payroll following complaints about ghost workers in the state.
‘The directive given to myself and the state’s accountant-general by the governor was to carry out verification exercises to fish out ghost workers to assist us in getting this result’, the head of service stated.
Penpushing further reports that Tino disclosed that a committee that conducted the exercise discovered that the two suspended officers issued fake appointment letters to some graduates under the preceding administration, adding that the number of those with fake appointment letters had yet to be ascertained because the investigation was still ongoing.
‘While we were carrying out the screening exercise to authenticate genuine civil servants, we discovered that some youth recruited by the previous administration of Governor Darius Ishaku last year were given fake appointment letters’, he said.
‘When we discovered the fake appointment letters, we withdrew them and set up a committee which later exposed the atrocities the two officers committed. They connived and printed fake appointment letters for many unemployed youth’, Tino added.
Penpushing also reports that the Head of Service told journalists that the unnamed officers would remain on suspension without salaries until the investigation is concluded, just as findings showed that during that exercise, the suspended officers allegedly sold employment letters to hundreds of graduates.
Meanwhile, it is recalled that in 2021, Governor Ishaku lifted an embargo on employment in the state civil service, and subsequently, the Civil Service Commission directed indigenes to apply by obtaining an online application form for N3,500.
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