False age declaration: HoS fails to sack border agency boss indicted by ICPC
The Head of Service of the Federation Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita has defied the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission (ICPC) by refusing to sack the acting Executive Secretary of Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA) Mrs Victoria Olutayo Odumosu, indicted by the anti-graft agency two months ago, over age falsification.
The ICPC the HoS to had requested disengage Mrs Odumosu from service and make her refund all the salaries and allowances she
illegally collected period of her service.
The Public Service Rules (2008 edition) makes it compulsory for public officials to retire after 35 years in service or on attainment of 60 years of age or whichever one comes first. beyond the
Mrs Odumosu falsified her age - ICPC
In the letter addressed to the HoS dated April 6, 2018, with reference number ICPC/P/NC/1299/2017 and signed by the ICPC acting chairman Musa Usman Abubakar, the anti-graft agency said its investigations confirmed that Mrs Odumosu is still in service because she falsified her date of birth in 2016 by changing it from July 6, 1956 to July 6, 1960.
The one-page letter said: “The commission is in receipt of a petition dated 13 December 2017 written against Mrs Odumosu Victoria Olutayo, the current Director of Administration and Human Resources, Borders Communities Development Agency (BCDA).
“After a thorough and in-depth investigation of the petition, it was confirmed that the officer has overstayed in service by twenty (20) months at the time of this report.
“The purpose of this letter is to request you to please disengage the suspect from service immediately and she should refund all the monies (salaries and allowances) she collected beyond the period of her service. We shall be glad if the commission is informed of the action taken.”
Daily Trust exclusively reported how a memo dated November 9, 2017 and sent to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo by BCDA’s former Executive Secretary, Engr. Numoipre Wills said Mrs Odumosu should have retired from the federal service in 2016 but that she used her position as BCDA’s Head of Administration “to falsify, alter and or manipulate her records in order to attain her purported directorship and seniority in this agency.”
What public Service Rule says
Falsification of records is defined by the Public Service Rule as a “serious act of misconduct” which may lead to dismissal if investigated and proven. Chapter 4, section 4 (subsection 030401) defines serious misconduct as “specific act of very serious wrongdoing and improper behaviour which is inimical to the image of the service and can be investigated and if proven, may lead to dismissal.”
The rule in Chapter 3 (section 3) vested the punishment (which is a suspension in the first instance, and dismissal if proven) of any public servant found to have committed gross misconduct on the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC).
The police will thereafter begin the criminal prosecution of the dismissed public servant under Sections 36, 156, 157, 158 of the Penal Code, aside from any other related offence.
HoS yet to act two months after
Mrs Oyo- Ita had earlier said in an official memo she personally signed that Mrs Odumosu will continue to act as the ahead of the BCDA pending the outcome of an investigation of allegations against her.
But two months after ICPC said its investigations have found Mrs Odumosu culpable of the allegations, the head of service has refused to either suspend or begin the process of disengaging her from service as required by law and requested by the anti-corruption agency.
The HoS letter dated December 5, 2017, with reference number HCSF/LU/CORR/SH/ABJ/ RM/711/V11 and addressed to the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Vice President Office, said “officers should not be deprived of privileges of serving the nation at higher levels in their organisations based on allegations that have not been investigated or proved….”
“A perusal of the documents obtained from both the outgone executive secretary and the director mentioned in SGF’s letter, attached to your letters under reference, calls for further investigations, but the existing senior director and the only director in the agency should be authorized to act pending the appointment of the new executive secretary or pending the outcome of investigation of allegation of false age declaration.
“Where an officer overstayed his/ her age in the service, the penalties are available in the Service Rules, but an officer should not be punished or deprived of a privilege based on allegations that have not been proved.”
Last week, Daily Trust contacted the Director of Communications in the HoS office, Mrs Olawunmi Ogunmosunle, for comment over the ICPC’s letter. The spokesperson said she was yet to be briefed on the development and she would get back to our correspondent afterward. She never did up to the time of publishing this story.
How the scandal started
The furore began in November last year when Wills vacated office that month following the expiration of his second term in office. He handed over the agency to Alhaji Faruk Maiturare, Deputy Director and Head of Project Development and Implementation Department.
Two days later, Dr. R.P. Ugo, Permanent Secretary, General Services Office wrote to Engr Wills on behalf of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and directed him to hand over instead to Mrs Odumosu “who is the only Director in the agency based on your Nominal Roll as at October 2017.”
In his reply to the Vice President through the SGF dated November 9, 2017 Wills said, “I was constrained to hand over to Alhaji Maiturare, a fellow of NIOB, and a builder by profession with the requisite expertise, experience, and core competencies necessary for the leadership of an organisation such as BCDA whose primary mandate is the provision of socioeconomic infrastructure to border communities.
“In addition, it was recently discovered that Mrs Victoria Tayo Odumosu being paraded as the most senior in the Agency has been involved in falsification of records which is a serious misconduct punishable by dismissal under Sections 030401-030402 of the Public Service Rules 2008 Edition.”
Copies of BCDA’s Staff Nominal Roll for 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014, all of which our reporter saw, listed 6/7/1956 as her date of birth. Mrs Odumosu went to work at BCDA from the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Jos in 2010. ITF’s Seniority List with Qualification for 2009, which our reporter also saw, as well as the officer’s Record of Service in File 02817 at ITF both listed her date of birth as 6/7/1956.
Dramatically, however, according to Wills, Odumosu’s date of birth changed to 6/7/1960 in BCDA’s Staff Nominal Rolls for 2016 and 2017, which she prepared as Head of Administration, and which our reporter also saw.
Daily Trust further learnt that Mrs Odumosu tried to change the date of birth on her international passport but this was rejected by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). A letter addressed to the Chairman, Senate Committee on States and Local Government Administration dated January 2, 2018, signed by NIS Comptroller General Muhammad Babandede, which our reporter saw, said “(Odumosu) applied for change of date of birth from 1956 to 1960 based on her purported record of service presented for her request. However, a document presented proved that she could not be born in 1960 because she sat for her WASC in 1973 and her Grade Two Teachers Certificate in 1975 which should have been 13 and 15 years respectively.”
Babandede said “in the light of the above, this fraudulent attempt to change her date of birth did not also conform to her previous MRP passport No AO4389378 which confirmed her date of birth to be 1956. Thus, the request was rejected and the reissue was done with the same date of birth.”
Daily Trust learnt that even though she was not issued with an appointment letter, Mrs. Odumosu has since taken over from Alhaji Faruk Maiturare as BCDA’s acting Executive Secretary pending the appointment of a substantive head for the agency.
Another source at the Accountant General’s office told our reporter that Odumosu must have succeeded in changing her date of birth at the AG’s office because the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) of the Federal Government automatically stops a civil servant’s salary as soon as he or she clocks 60 years of age.