Fake agency: Head of service admits due diligence failure in recruitment waiver scandal

By Gift ChapiOdekina

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF), Mrs. Esther Didi Walson-Jack, on Wednesday admitted before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the alleged creation of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) and the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) without legal backing that her office failed to carry out adequate due diligence before issuing key approvals.

This is also as the committee uncovered what it described as a web of forged documents used to secure government approvals.

Appearing before the committee, Walson-Jack acknowledged that her office relied on documents later discovered to be fake in granting an authorised establishment and recruitment waiver to the purported agency.

“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/PFIPC,” she told lawmakers.