07 June 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA – NIGERIA’s Labour and Productivity Minister, Emeka Wogu has inaugurated a 10-man panel to resolve outstanding issues on the biometric verification of employees of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
Wogu urged the panel members in Abuja on Tuesday to ensure that all labour-related issues were resolved.
He added that issues which might impede the process of the privatisation agenda of the Federal Government on the PHCN had been resolved.
“In line with the foregoing, a Biometric Verification Exercise was agreed upon, carried out and concluded for all employees of the PHCN in April 2012.
“The result of that exercise showed that out of 37,136 permanent staff of the PHCN, 1,635 could not be verified. Furthermore, out of 19,848 casual staff, 10,327 could not be verified.
“This state of affairs is not acceptable and it is against this background that government decided to constitute this inter-ministerial Biometric Reconciliation Panel.’’
The minster told the panel, headed by Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu, to review the documentation of the PHCN employees with regards to the purported claims that some staff could not be verified.
Other terms of reference include the recommendation of approval for any staff that merit re-verification and the recommendation of legal action against identified questionable claims.
The members of the panel were drawn from the Federal Ministry of Labour, the State Security Service and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Others are: Federal Ministry of Justice, the PHCN, Federal Ministry of Power, Bureau of Public Enterprises and the National Union of Electricity Employees.
The panel had two weeks submit its reports.
