Charging application fee by MDAs illegal, says FCC

The Acting Chairman, Federal Character Commission (FCC) Mohammed Bello Alkali yesterday frowned at the practice of collecting application fees by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for application online, describing it as illegal.
Alkali who spoke with reporters in Abuja, stated that it has come to the notice of the FCC that MDAs have been charging applicants what they call application fee, for job processing, insisting that it was wrong.
He said: “The application fee charged by these MDAs ranges from between N2,000 and N3,000.
“This practice is illegal as it runs contrary to Federal Character Commission guidelines on recruitment into the Nigerian public service as well as Presidential Directives on Recruitment which completely stopped buying of scratch card.
“The commission will henceforth, without further notice sanction any Chief Executive of MDAs that flout these guidelines.”
Alkali said the commission is on a sensitisation campaign, notifying applicants that they are not supposed to pay fee for job whether on-line or hard copy.
Recruiting MDA should arrange for the payment of approved consultants without taking the applicants’ money, he said.