FAAN restructuring: Sirika seeks comprehensive list

Barely two months of the restructuring exercise carried out in the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), with some names allegedly smuggled out of the original compilation to spare them from the Tsunami, Hadi Sirika, minister of state for aviation, has called for a comprehensive list.
A source in one of the government’s agency says the minister’s request for the list is coming on the heels of insinuations making the round in the industry that some allegedly corrupt and highly connected management staff of FAAN have removed some names, including that of their friends and those loyal to them.
A comprehensive list, which was made available to few journalists by highly dependable Ministry of Aviation source, revealed that there were about 60 names in FAAN alone, that were either recommended for demotion or to be fired out rightly as of 2015.
Surprisingly, ‘the right placement’ exercise that was enforced in October 2016, only affected 22 middle and senior staff in FAAN, while others were no longer on the list.
According to the source, “Some of those affected by the exercise and even the industry unions have complained about the way and manner the exercise was carried out. They believed that some names were removed from the original list by some top people in the agency.
“The initial list of the committee was more comprehensive than what was carried out. Rather than demote some workers as stipulated, the list was manipulated while some workers were immediately transferred out of Lagos by the management so that they won’t be affected by the purge.
“Apart from this, some of the recommendation on the demotion of staff to appropriate Grade Level was not followed. For instance, someone in the Administrative Department (names withheld), who was recommended to be demoted to GL 14 from GL16 was demoted to GL15. In fact, the person in question cannot write an ordinary memo.”
It was learnt from the source that the minister was angered by the alleged removal of some names from the original list, a situation that made him ask for a comprehensive list.
However, Sirika had stated at one of the stakeholders’ meetings that ‘the proper placement’ exercise that started in FAAN would be carried out in other aviation agencies and that it would be in phases.
The Winifred Oyo-Ita headed committee on restructuring of the aviation agencies, which had some unions leaders as members, had recommended proper placement of staff in aviation agencies.