*‘We Didn’t Do Our Best To Verify, We Never Deployed Staff To PFIPC’
*CBN: Two Foreign Currency Accounts Opened For PFIPC On OAGF Directive
THE Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoS), Esther Walson-Jack, has clarified that the office space used by the fictitious Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) at the federal secretariat in Abuja was actually allocated to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
Walson-Jack made the disclosure on Monday, July 20, during her appearance before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the PFIPC controversy and the N1.3billion allocated to the council in this year’s Appropriation Act.
She told lawmakers: “We can state categorically that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation did not allocate any office space to the PFIPC,” recalling that PFIPC approached her office on August 6, last year, seeking approval of its organisational structure, but the request was initially declined, because the council did not submit the required documents.
She explained that newly established organisations were expected to provide either an establishment Act, an enabling legal instrument or other valid documents establishing their existence before such requests are processed, adding that during the 2025 annual workforce projection and human resources exercise, PFIPC officials said the council was participating for the first time and was operating with personnel seconded from other government agencies.
She said the council also sought an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver to employ substantive staff, informing her office that 14 officials, including its director general, were already in place.
Walson-Jack said the council submitted copies of its director general’s appointment letter and documents showing that it already had a budget code; hence the request was included, alongside those of other ministries, departments and agencies, in the fourth batch of submissions approved on July 18, last year, by the permanent secretary overseeing the office during her absence.
She dismissed claims that her office posted civil servants to PFIPC, noting that her office only received a request seeking deployment of officers to support the council, which was never approved, more so as recruitment and placement of staff are the responsibility of individual government agencies and do not fall within the mandate of her office.
During the hearing, a member of the committee, Hassan Fulata, queried why the HoS accepted the PFIPC’s documents without confirming the authenticity of its purported enabling Act, as government agencies cannot participate in the budget process without valid legal backing and officials ought to have verified the documents, in line with the Acts Authentication Act before assigning a budget code.
In her response, Walson-Jack admitted shortcomings in the verification process, saying officers who initially assessed the documents were not lawyers and therefore failed to detect that the purported enabling Act was fake.
Walson-Jack explained that she only discovered the irregularity when she review the documents personally following the controversy surrounding the council’s budgetary allocation.
Acknowledging that the discovery exposed weaknesses in the HoS office, Walson-Jack assured that a review of its standard operating procedures was underway to strengthen the legal scrutiny of documents submitted by government agencies, adding: “We need to have another level of verification.
“We need to have a lawyer on the team that will receive legal documents so that the lawyer can assess every legal document.”
The HoS stated that multiple verification layers would now be introduced before legal documents are accepted, noting: “We concede that we didn’t do the best we ought to have done in cross-checking those documents at the time they were presented.”
Walson-Jack stressed that issues relating to the establishment, supervision and operations of PFIPC fall outside the statutory mandate of the HoS and rest with the OSGF and other relevant government institutions.
On his part, Director of Banking Services, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Abdullahi Hamisu, disclosed that two foreign currency accounts were opened for the PFIPC on the directive of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF).
Hamisu said the CBN followed its standard account-opening procedures and did not require an enabling Act before processing the request, adding though, that the accounts were never funded or operated.
Chairman of the committee, Yusuf Gagdi, directed the SGF, George Akume; Minister of Budget, Abubakar Bagudu; Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele; Accountant General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi; Director General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu; Executive Chairperson of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Hulayat Omidiran; and Chairperson of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, to appear before the committee to throw light on the operations and inclusion of the council in this year’s budget.
