PFIPC scandal: We approved recruitment documents without due diligence — HoS

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, has admitted that her office approved recruitment requests linked to the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) without conducting adequate due diligence.

Walson-Jack made the admission on Wednesday while testifying before the House of Representatives Committee investigating the activities of the council and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).

She told the committee that her office acted on documents submitted by representatives of the organisations without independently confirming their authenticity.

“My office received the Letter of Appointment and the Establishment Act and, based on those documents and also based on the interaction with the representatives of the PEAC and PFICP, we went on to issue the Authorised Establishment and later the Recruitment Waiver,” she said.

She admitted that the approvals should not have been granted without carrying out more thorough verification.

“We now, having seen all the facts and observed all the documents, concede that we ought to have carried out more due diligence in the discharge of the duties of the office in issuing an Authorised Establishment and a Recruitment Waiver to the PEAC/PFICP,” she said.

Giving further explanation, Walson-Jack said the existence of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council as an ad hoc body in the past may have contributed to the mix-up.

“We do know that the PEAC used to exist as an ad hoc organisation on its own, and the documents that were presented had PEAC/PFICP. However, as I said, due diligence may have detected whether those documents were actually authentic,” she added.

The committee is probing the activities of the promotion council, a purported government agency accused of fraudulent activities, as well as the process through which it secured official recognition and recruitment approvals from government institutions.