PFIPC: We failed due diligence on recruitment waiver — HCSF

***Says in almost 100 years of Federal Civil Service, situation as this has never happened ***Accountant-General’s office admits lapses, blames individual officer for letter diversion By Gift Odekina ABUJA — Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, HCSF, Mrs. Esther Didi Walson-Jack, yesterday admitted before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating 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 even as the committee said it 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 authorised 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 discharge of the duties of the office in issuing an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver to the PEAC/PFIPC,” she told lawmakers. The Head of Service explained that officials of the purported agency presented themselves as representatives of a newly established federal body during the 2025 Annual Manpower Budget Defence, accompanied by what appeared to be an Establishment Act and a letter appointing a Director-General.

According to her, under established civil service procedures, newly-created agencies seeking to recruit staff, are expected to present an enabling Act; the appointment letter of the chief executive; and other supporting documents before an authorised establishment and provisional recruitment waiver are issued. ‘We processed requests based on documents presented’ She said her office processed the request based on the documents presented, noting that the case was unprecedented. “In over almost a century of the Federal Civil Service, we have never encountered a situation like the current one.

Criminals always try to be a step ahead of law enforcement,” she said. However, under questioning by the committee, Walson-Jack admitted that the Establishment Act submitted by the purported agency was not authentic. “I requested to see the documents myself and I saw that the Establishment Act…