Senate demands comprehensive list of recruited staff from DPR

The Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream has requested that
the Department of Petroleum Resources submit a comprehensive list
of workers recently employed by the agency.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Tayo Alasoadura made this
known when the agency appeared before it for budget defence.

The committee asked the agency to provide names of those
recruited, their states of origin and other details, to enable it
to determine if the process met Federal Character requirements or
not.

It further sought to know why the agency’s overhead cost went
down by 50 per cent in the 2019 budget.

The committee also requested for an explicit and detailed
presentation of the agency’s Internally Generated Revenue and how
it is being utilised, as the figures are not contained in the
budget proposal.

Responding, DPR Director, Mr Mordecai Ladan assured the
committee that all requested documents would be made available.

He added that there is nothing to worry about, as the federal
character provision and other criteria were used in the recruitment
process.

While confirming that the agency recruited over 500 workers, he
said necessary procedures were followed in the recruitment.

“When we wanted to recruit, we informed all relevant committees
in the National Assembly.

“Advertisements came out in November 2018, although there were
things that needed to be sorted out and that made the process to
last for six months and over 700, 000 people applied.

“The interview was conducted after one year. Meanwhile, the
Federal Character Commission was involved in the process and every
state was taken care of in the recruitment, catchment areas were
also used,” he said.

On why the overhead cost for 2019 budget was reduced by 50 per
cent, the director said it was based on request from the Budget
Office.

“The budget office asked us to reduce the expenditure,” he
said.

Ladan noted that the agency had a total budget of N39.33
billion, with N681 million as capital expenditure, N592.90 million
overhead cost and N38.06 billion as personnel cost.

(NAN)

Igbawua pledges support to NPS

The chief commissioner of the Public Complaint Commission (PCC),
Hon. Chile Igbawua has pledged to support Nigerian Prisons Service
towards ensuring the administration of justice in Nigeria

He made this known during a courtesy call on the Controller
General of Prisons at his office in Abuja. According to him, the
visit was to oversee the operations of the Service towards the
dispensation of justice, inmates’ welfare and to explore on the
areas lacking that needs government intervention.

Hon. Igbawua also said that the PCC is to serve in all
jurisdictions from the Federal, State, and Local government
including registered companies towards the course of justice and
ensure that justice is served and not abused.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Controller General of
Prisons (CGP), Ja’afaru Ahmed appreciated the Chief Commissioner
for the visit and informed that the Service has witnessed quite a
number of transformations in the Service in the last three years
and is still ongoing.

The CGP enumerated the Service achievements to include improved
inmates welfare, upgrade of infrastructure, training and retaining
of staff, adequate inmates’ treatment through education and skills
acquisition, provision of logistics to ensure easy movement of
inmates to and from court. All these interventions led to the 2018
UNESCO award for Literacy and Skill Development, many other
national and international awards in 2018.

Ja’afaru further stressed that the major bane of the Service is
overcrowding in most urban Prisons, speedy passage of the Nigerian
Correction Bill 2018 and staff that were recruited into the Service
with fake Certificate who are crying foul for wrongful dismissal
from Service.

Furthermore, CGP Ahmed expressed confidence in the PCC to
diligently handle complaints made against the NPS, noting that
while the Service is certainly not devoid of systemic flaws, some
of the complaints are frivolous.