By Felix Kassim
The Managing Director of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, says no fewer than 270 staff members of the Federal Government’s agency are currently being paid without having any office or assignment.
Adesugba, who put the ideal staff capacity of NEPZA at 350, expressed surprise over the recruitment of hundreds of persons by the previous administration that has now resulted in surplus employees in the Authority.
“I wonder why a previous administration recruited an additional 270 people, who are being paid and have no offices or assignments.
“We will have to think out of the box to engage these young recruits in our effort to ignite the country’s industrialization. We hope to use some of the unutilised recruits in investor relations and marketing,” a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday by Martins Odeh, Head, Corporate Communications, NEPZA, quoted Adesugba as said.
The statement said the NEPZA boss stated this when he received the Comrade Samari Yakubu-led executives of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), NEPZA chapter, who were in his office to brainstorm on the challenges and prospects of the organisation.
Adesugba explained that the union must redirect its focus from “combative” to “developmental” unionism, adding that the agency had a primary mandate of stimulating production, creating jobs, generating revenues, generating Foreign Direct Investment and industrialising the country.
Meanwhile, NEPZA has appealed to aggrieved persons that have dragged the agency to court over non-disclosure of requested information to withdraw the suits.
Adesugba made the call on Tuesday in Abuja while inaugurating a 14-man Freedom of Information (FOI) Act Committee that will interface with the public on behalf of the organisation on issues bordering on granting of information.
“Presently, the Authority has against it two pending lawsuits for inadvertently failing to respond to demands for information by the litigants, just as we have numerous such requests that are yet to be treated.
“I am calling on those who instituted the lawsuits to withdraw same following our moves to do things differently. I also plead with those whose requests are yet to be processed to bear with us.
“I have gone through the FOI Act, and I can see that the Act can easily be breached because of the limited number of days one is expected to respond, but we must comply with the law. The committee will henceforth be responsible for the receiving and processing of requests within the stipulated period of seven days.
“I have, however, seen that the NEPZA website is static. We need to redesign it to give room for more information to be put out. The public is always eager to know about the accounting procedure, budgeting, procurement process, contracts bidding process and such other aspects that can likely heighten public incredulity. The public has the right to know what we do here,’’ Adesugba said.
