Contrary to media reports which trailed
the recent public hearing held by the Senate Joint Committee on Federal
Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs and Labour and Employment, the Federal
Road Safety Corps wishes to state categorically that no recruitment exercise
took place in the Corps in 2012.
This is coming on the heels of a declaration
by the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Prof Shuaibu Oba that FRSC
recruitment exercise of 6,000 officers in 2012 was faulty and illegal.
According to the Corps Public Education
Officer, Jonas Agwu, Corps Commander, “the FRSC had an approved establishment
of 18,834 while its staff strength stood at 13,092. In view of this, an
approval was sought and received from the Head of Civil Service of the
Federation to recruit in 2010 which was carried out in 2010/2011.
He added that in 2011, the FRSC also
received approved establishment of 20,012 staff, upon which it sought and got
waiver from the Head of Civil Service of the Federation to recruit additional
personnel. This approval was utilized in 2011 and the successful candidates
were sent for training in December, 2011 which lasted up to February, 2012 and
were issued appointment letters, he added.
Explaining further, Agwu stated that it
was this training of successful candidates that spilled over to 2012 and not a
fresh recruitment. He also added “our policy on recruitment, training and
deployment is such that we don’t issue appointment letters until a
recruit/cadet passes out from the training camp.
On the issue of illegal recruitment,
the Corps Public Education Officer said “FRSC has no record of such recruitment
and our internal control mechanism does not allow such. For the avoidance of
doubt, we wish reiterate that the Corps did not recruit any staff in 2012
neither is the Corps involved in any form of recruitment scam. The FRSC has a
centralized system of recruitment, training and deployment, all of which are
carried out at the National Headquarters. Upon deployment, new staff report to
their various Commands where they are documented, and their Commanding Officers
subsequently forward their assumption of duty certificates for inclusion in the
Payroll. Therefore, there is no way a person can successfully get into the
workforce of FRSC without going through these processes. Nevertheless, in the
wake of wide spread recruitment scam, FRSC issued a Disclaimer in January 2013
warning the general public against patronizing such syndicates, and this was
widely publicized in the media.
It will be recalled that the Senate
Joint Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs and Labour and
Employment had instituted a public hearing to investigate alleged employment
irregularities in the Federal Establishments in the last two years.
Additional
Information:
1. Federal
Road Safety Commission (FRSC) is the lead agency for road safety management in
Nigeria established in 1988. FRSC website: www.frsc.gov.ng
2.
FRSC
contact: Jonas Agwu, Corps Public Education Officer 08033026491,08077690055jonasagwu@yahoo.com,
j.agwu@frsc.gov.ng
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