NITDA D-G Pantami defends integrity as employment scam rocks Information Technology Development Agency

The crisis that led to the ouster of former Director-General (D-G) of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Peter Jack, has reared its head again.
NITDA is an agency of the Federal Government with the vision to be Nigeria’s prime agency and catalyst for transforming the nation into a knowledge-based and IT-driven economy under the Ministry of Communication.
The agency is presently enmeshed in another alleged employment scam.
When the first crisis reached a peak, Jack was fired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The action was carried out by Communications Minister, Adebayo Shittu. Jack was accused, among other things, of shoddy deals and illegal employments.
The new helmsman of the agency, Dr. Isa Pantami, succeeded Dr. Vincent Olatunji who was made Acting DG of NITDA after Jack was fired by the government.
Curiously, the same crisis, which made Jack to lose his job, is currently at play according to a statement by Lagos-based Whistleblowers Group of Nigeria (WGN).
The group, in a statement by Habib Jafar and Emmanuel Ajayi, the Convener and Secretary of the WGN respectively, stated that the ongoing anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration “must be allowed to fester and flourish, notwithstanding whose ox is gored.”
The group maintained that no one should be spared as the fierce fight against corruption gets underway in the largest black nation in the world.
“To this end, Whistleblowers Group Nigeria (WGN) has uncovered yet another unwholesome practices in NITDA being perpetrated under its leadership. The unwholesome practices ranged from proxy concealment of kickbacks of between 10% to 15% from agency’s contractors to secondment of over 25 staff of the agency to sister agencies, with the affected staff still drawing their pay from NITDA.
“The secondment of the affected staff, 90% of who are from Bauchi and Gombe states, the home state of the D-G, majority of who he shoddily recruited are being paid from NITDA account and absorbed without due process. It did not only negate the principle of federal character but also revealed NITDA management as guilty of nepotism. This outright abuse of office and delaying in paying contractors earlier awarded some contracts by his successor, and alleged demand for kickbacks from between 10% to 15% through his pointsman who doubles as a top Finance officer in the agency, is generating ripples and undue suspicion that similar infractions exposed under Peter Jack may be a child’s play afterall.”
The group also alleged the DG “of armtwisting and muscling agency’s staffers to submission by instilling undue fears into their minds to ride roughshod on their faces. Our findings further revealed that the D-G now parades two Personal Assistants with one of them simply identified as Engr. Ibrahim presently under security watch after a clandestine recording of an illicit deal on behalf of the D-G was uncovered in a tape recording.
“Also, the Whistleblowers Group of Nigeria is currently in possession of documents on property transactions involving a friend of the D-G (names withheld), acting as a front for Pantami, in a choice area of the Federal Capital Territory less than six months for use of the D-G who assumed office barely a year ago thus fuelling suspicion that the new helmsman is living beyond his means”, the group alleged further.
In this direction, the group has called on both arms of the National Assembly on Federal Character to beam their searchlights on NITDA again so as to whip into line the new leadership as the WGN will not hesitate to alert and avail government’s anti-corruption agencies – the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) with all the facts at its disposal.
But, in a swift reaction, Pantami said: “I was at a conference when you called and the network was very bad. My phone is usually switched off when I am in the office because of disturbances. That was the American system. Thank you very much for texting me on the allegations raised by WGN. I read the secondment issue and employment allegation too. Nobody was seconded without ministerial appointment. There is embargo on recruitment because there is a case in court involving my predecessor. The ones they referred to are not pensionable staff, they are just on contract and I got the approval of my Minister. They are not on the payroll of NITDA as well. I have approval from the ministry and all the documents backing up steps I have taken so far are intact. The 2010 till 2017 contract issues have not been resolved concerning the payment to contractors. No approval to pay from 2010-2014 except for 2015 and 2016 that we got approval for and we have paid up to abut 90%. I don’t need to collect kickbacks. Why, what for? I am not dealing with contractors. Whoever says I take or collect anything from any contractor should go and give it to anti corruption agencies to investigate. My Director of Human resources, Mrs. Adeniran Adeola, is in custody of the contract staff list they mentioned and the minister approved all my dealings and the records are there to show.
“No contractor has ever met me to discuss even payment of their money with me. I have told everybody onset that it is not my duty. Again, those taken in as contract staff are not indigenes of my state or where I come from. If there is any section that has been marginalised, we will make arrangement for them because we are all Nigerians and the country belongs to all of us. There are many examples that I deal with people equitably not minding your race, creed or religion”.