A Members of the commission led by Comrade Mohammed Adams Erena, has declared the Niger State Civil Service Commission (CSC) has no knowledge of the claims of sacking 726 civil servants from the state government workforce.
Erena who made this disclosure when they appeared before the state House of Assembly Ad-hoc Committee on salary irregularities in the state, stating that the list of those dismissed being circulated around did not originate from the Commission.
“We saw the list of the dismissed staff on social media just like any other person,” they claimed.
Speaking, Erena, Member 1 of the commission, told the lawmakers that matters of such magnitude were never handled by individuals, but by the commission, made up of all the five members including the chairman.
He explained that the commission has never sat on the dismissal of any civil servant in the state except on seven staff out of the 83 recommended by the Panti Salary Management Committee whose case was treated within the purview of due process.
Erena insisted that it was an aberration of the civil rules and privileges of civil servants for anyone to have produced such a list and claimed the 726 employees have been sacked, without going through the CAC.
“The Civil Service Commission by law is empowered to employ, promote, discipline including dismissing civil servants and no authority has the power to do that except the commission and we didn’t do that to the best of my knowledge,” he maintained.
The CAC member also revealed that their tenure as commission members had expired on July 27 and the alleged list of those sacked was issued on 30th July.
“Up till the time we left office, to the last minute that our tenure expired, we have not sat as a commission to treat any matter such as the mass dismissal of civil servants. We have not directed the Permanent Secretary, PS, to do anything resembling that,” they said.
He further added that the civil service was an organized institution with laid down rules and regulations, noting, “I will be right to say due process was not followed in the case of the affected officers”.
Responding, the chairman of the ad-hoc committee and member representing Bosso Constituency, Hon Malik Madaki Bosso, noted that his committee has taken note of the submissions and will report to the house as soon as its assignment is completed.
Bosso explained that earlier, the Perm. Sec of the CAC had confessed during her appearance before the committee that the order for the sack of the affected staff was an executive order from above.
He, however, faulted the move arguing,”It will be an abuse of power to sack civil servants without following laid down rules and regulations. We are not in a military era where somebody will just wake one day and sack the entire civil servants of the state.”
