The Cross River State Government has expressed its willingness to compensate individuals who may have lost money to officials during the now-cancelled 2024/2025 local government recruitment exercise.
The government also approved the employment of 4,000 workers into the local government service after cancelling the recruitment exercise, which it described as fundamentally flawed and allegedly characterised by job racketeering and the commercialisation of employment slots.
The Chairman of the Cross River State Local Government Service Commission, Eyo Ekpo, disclosed the compensation plan on Friday while speaking during a radio programme.
Ekpo said the government was still working out the modalities for compensating those affected, while assuring qualified applicants that they would have another opportunity to apply through a fresh and transparent recruitment process.
“The issue of what will be seen as compensatory is still being worked out,” he said.
He added that persons affected by the cancellation would be allowed to reapply when a new recruitment portal opens within the next two to three weeks.
“Nothing precludes those who have been laid off by this unfortunate but very, very necessary decision from reapplying,” Ekpo said.
The development followed the submission of a report by a panel of enquiry constituted to investigate the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise conducted by the now-defunct Local Government Commission.
In a statement issued Thursday, the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Anthony Owan-Enoh, said the panel found that the exercise lacked the approval of the governor and violated public service ethics, extant laws and financial regulations.
The panel also identified what the government described as institutional complicity, ineptitude, lack of transparency and accountability in the process.
Consequently, the government cancelled the entire exercise, except for 83 CROSIEC personnel who had earlier been employed by the Cross River Civil Service Commission and redesignated to the Local Government Service Commission.
The government said only 821 personnel whose recruitment had been duly approved by the governor would be retained on the payroll, while others who entered through unauthorised or illegal recruitment processes would be removed.
Ekpo described the recruitment process as a “criminal enterprise” and said the fresh exercise would deploy digital platforms and modern recruitment procedures to determine staffing needs and ensure that employment was based strictly on established requirements.
He assured qualified indigenes and other eligible applicants of a level playing field in the new process.
Meanwhile, the state government has directed the Attorney-General and relevant law enforcement agencies to investigate the circumstances surrounding the cancelled exercise and prosecute persons found culpable.
It also said legitimate employees recruited with due approval had continued to receive their salaries, while persons removed from the payroll following the cancellation would receive compensatory benefits.
The government said it would also comprehensively unbundle and sanitise the state’s local government payroll.
While expressing sympathy for citizens who may have fallen victim to the recruitment scheme, the government said it could not legitimise appointments that were not lawfully authorised or approved.
It urged affected persons to remain calm and take advantage of the new recruitment window, promising a professional, transparent and accountable recruitment process.
