Mrs Didi Walson-Jack, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, on Monday confirmed that representatives of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PEAC/PFIPC) participated in the 2026 budget process and also obtained approval for 314 positions.
She disclosed this in Abuja after the inauguration of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the circumstances surrounding the existence and operations of the Council, chaired by Hon. Yusuf Gagdi.
While noting that the approval and establishment of agencies are not within the purview of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), she admitted that the Council submitted a request to the OHCSF on August 6, 2025, seeking approval of its organisational structure without providing the requisite documents.
According to her, the request, which was initially declined due to the non-submission of the relevant documents, was eventually approved for a total workforce of 314 positions, comprising 14 existing officers engaged by the Council and 300 additional positions.
She reiterated that records of the Organisation Design and Development (ODD) Department further confirmed that the authorised establishment was collected on behalf of the Council by a gentleman representing the PEAC/PFIPC.
Walson-Jack disclosed that the system was down during the controversial period when the Council was being registered.
She added that representatives of the Council participated in the 2025 Annual Manpower Budget Defence Exercise, led by a woman who identified herself as the Deputy Director of Administration, and appeared before officers of the Organisation Design and Development Department during the organisation’s bilateral manpower defence.
She further stressed that she only discovered the Council’s existence after reviewing all the available documents relating to it, following the public exposure of the incident.
According to her, following the bilateral engagements with the Council’s representatives during the 2025 Annual Manpower Budget Defence Exercise, the request was reviewed by officers of the ODD.
In line with the office’s established administrative procedure, the fourth batch, comprising 88 ministries, extra-ministerial departments and agencies, including the agency in question, was approved on July 18, 2025, by the Permanent Secretary, Common Services Office, who was overseeing the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation at the time.
She maintained that: “There was no deployment of officers by the OHCSF to the Council because recruitment and placement of staff in agencies…”
She added that the remuneration and emoluments of personnel fall under the purview of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, while the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is responsible for the remuneration of political appointees and chief executive officers.
Also, she categorically noted that the office occupied by the Council in Phase III of the Federal Secretariat is part of the office space allocated to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation through a letter dated November 16, 2023.
Mrs Walson-Jack added that all matters relating to the establishment, administration, supervision and operational oversight of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council fall within the jurisdiction of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, as well as other relevant government institutions.
