Staff of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) are not happy with the decision of the immediate past Chairman of the service, Mr. Tunde Fowler, to hand over to the Coordinating Director, Domestic Taxes Group, Abiodun Aina.
Recall that Mr. Fowler’s tenure ended on Monday, December 9, without being renewed and President Muhammadu Buhari named a successor in the person of Mr. Adamu Nami, who is awaiting confirmation by the Senate.
While leaving office, Fowler handed over to Aina in acting capacity, pending the confirmation of Nami as substantive chairman.
However, staff of the FIRS at an emergency meeting on Tuesday which held at the Association of Civil Servants’ secretariat in Abuja, contended that Fowler’s violated the directive of the President on the handover.
They insisted that Aina was not the most senior director in the FIRS.
In a communiqué signed by 17 senior officials of the union and sent to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed; the President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria and the President of the Nigeria Civil Service Union, the workers claimed that Aina lacked the qualifications to be employed into the Service and that his appointment to the position of Coordinating Director was against the provision of Section 2.19 of the FIRS Human Resource Policies and Processes.
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The communiqué read in part, “The attention of the Joint Union Council of FIRS has been drawn to the handover of the chairmanship of FIRS on acting capacity to Mr. Abiodun Aina on Monday December 9 2019.
“This was a clear departure from the Presidential directive on the handover as he (Aina) is not the most senior director.
“Mr Abiodun Aina in the first instance does not have the basic qualifications to be employed into the Service. Secondly, his appointment to the position of Coordinating Director was against the provision of Section 2.19 of the FIRS Human Resource Policies and Processes.”
Section 2.19 of the FIRS Human Resource Policies and Processes states that: “Appointment to the post of the Coordinating Director shall be made by the board on the recommendations of the executive chairman. The appointment shall be open to all confirmed directors of the Service and it shall be competitive based on experience, competence and seniority.”
According to the union, Aina was never a director in the Service, but a Senior Special Assistant to Fowler.
The union, therefore warned that if the hand over was not reversed by Friday, it would no longer guarantee industrial harmony at the service.
