A non-governmental organisation under the auspices of Concerned Common Citizens of Nigeria (CCCN), has raised alarm over purported promotion irregularities in the Nigeria Export-Import Bank, NEXIM.
This was contained in a statement jointly signed by President, CCCN, Halima Yusuf, and Secretary General, CCCN, Unekwu Khadijat Abubakar, where they expressed concern over the alleged action of the managing director/chief executive officer, Bashir Wali, would embarrass the federal government given the present economic conditions.
The statement further alleged that the acting MD of the bank and executive director, Corporate Affairs, Folake Itohan Oke, were political appointees of the bank who are hiding behind a loophole created by the dissolution of the boards of government agencies by the government to promote their cronies and allies in the bank.
The group also asked the interim management of the bank maintain status quo by returning the 92 staff that it claimed to have benefitted from the questionable promotions pending when a substantive Managing Director and management is appointed.
The statement reads in part: “The promoting of staff via a memo issued late on Friday February 26, 2016, the Acting MD and Executive Director Corporate Services have compiled 120 names of their surrogates to be absorbed into NEXIM to join its payroll without any form of interview or advertisement anywhere as required by law.
“The point is that these two individuals are in a mad rush to perpetuate and perfect this illegality without the knowledge of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Ministry of Finance and other relevant authorities that have a say in the affairs of the bank.
“We also found out that the ED Corporate Services who was fond of cutting loans deal during her hey days as ED Business Development has launched her agents to start selling jobs slots to people in a cash-for-employment recruitment exercise that cannot hold water.”
According to the statement the Minister of Finance held a meeting with the interim leadership to warn them about the present situation and specifically noted the bank’s non-performing loans that has left it vulnerable and in no condition to take on additional expenses, which they said that the interim management of the bank still went ahead to carry out this action which was in conflict with the present economic situation.
