Niger govt orders mandatory screening of appointees to curb forgery, burden

In its determination to ensure proper documentation and prune down government expenses, Niger State Government has ordered mandatory screening of all political appointees in the state. The State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Binta Mamman, who made this known in a statement on Friday, said that out of approximately 4,000 appointees to be screened, only those who successfully pass the screening exercise would receive their salaries.

“Our attention was drawn to some unscrupulous elements who forged political appointment letters thereby causing the government to pay heavy salaries including those who are not genuine appointees of the government,” she emphasised.

The commissioner explained that the numerous appointments were made in order to have an all inclusive government, bring more people on-board, foster a sense of belonging and reduce the rate of unemployment in the state. “But unfortunately, some bad eggs went ahead to cause unnecessary scenes by forging appointment letters,” she disclosed.

Mrs Mamman stressed that the screening exercise was the only way to checkmate the incidents of forgery so as to bring culprits to book, reduce the excess expenses and burden on the government.

“We cannot do otherwise other than to look inward and flush out those parading themselves with the fake appointments as being part of the system. This way, money can be channeled to other very important areas in the system,” she added.

Mrs Mamman explained that the approximately 4,000 political appointments made by the state government comprised different cadres of officials such as commissioners, special advisers, senior special assistants, coordinators, special assistants and others. She stressed that after the screening exercise, only those who scaled through the process would be paid their salaries.

Mrs Mamman said that currently the state government shoulders a heavy salary bill amounting to over N600 million adding that “the government has decided to identify the real appointees,” as a way of reducing the expenses. “We assure you that the screening exercise is ongoing to enable the government to identify the real beneficiaries,” she said.

It is noteworthy that some appointees a few days ago protested at the Government House, Minna over alleged delay in the payment of their September salary.