Recruitment, promotion scandal rocks NIMASA

The ministry will probe the recruitment of staff from 2010 till date.
It was gathered at the ministry that the government expects the investigations to end alleged lopsided recruitment of staff in the agency by a private consulting firm which tend to undermine civil service regulations.
The move by government, it was gathered, may not be unconnected with a petition to the Minister of Transport by some aggrieved staff.
The petitioners want the minister to look into the issue of disciplinary actions against erring staff which in their view, has become worrisome as the executive management is allegedly humiliating some staff  perceived to be sympathetic to certain political parties.
The petitioners alleged that staff that were eligible for promotion were always framed up with phantom charges to silence them.
They urged the minister’s immediate intervention by investigating these and related complaints in the interest of the public service.
“The commissioning of a consultant with attendant costs whose outcome is questionable should be thoroughly investigated for the purposes of accountability and transparency.
Appointments into GL 15 and above should not be based on political or ethnic consideration, rather should be based on career development and progression as practiced in the public service”, they said.
However, the agency’s Deputy Director, Public Relations, Isiche Osamgbi, said he would not like to join issues with the petitioners whom he described as “faceless.” According to him, the so called petition to the minister, a copy of which he claimed to have also sighted, has been in circulation for some time now.
“At NIMASA, we are committed to the mandate given to us by the federal government, and in this, we are united,” he said.