Kogi’s Contentious Screening Exercise
The screening exercise embarked upon by the Kogi State Government for its public sector workers is revealing, Yekini Jimoh writes
There are problems associated with the staff screening in the state, but it did not start on January 27 , 2016 when Alhaji Yahaya Bello came on board.These problems did not start with the immediate past governor, Captain Idris Wada, neither did it start with former governor of the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris. It all started from the day when Kogi State was created from Benue and Kwara States in August 27, 1991
One big problem successive administrations in Kogi State have had to deal with is the issue of over-bloated civil service. It has put considerable pressure on the state’s meager financial resources. The current government is not insulated from the crisis either. The administration described the civil service it inherited from the previous administrations as a “cesspit of corruption” and one which was not “adequately trained and motivated to serve the people of the state”.
However, in the bid to correct the anomaly, the state government under the new administration of Yahaya Bello constituted a screening committee headed by a former State Security Adviser, General Paul Okutimoh (rtd). Last year February, the committee started sitting.
To address the concern of organised labour, the governor changed the headship of the committee and gave labour the chance to lead the committee.
That action did not only demonstrate the respect Bello has for the labour community, it also gave credibility to the screening.
Also, the state government went ahead to set up a review committee which exposed a lot of fraud in the system. For instance, some people were discovered to have used their late sisters’ or brothers’ certificates to join the civil service.
Some over aged persons were found to have remained in service when they were supposed to have quit. This discovery raised the question ‘If people that are 72 years old refuse to leave the service, when will the youths have their chance of serving their fatherland?’
In Kogi State civil service, it was discovered that people printed fake certificates to get jobs and promotion. Some others work in Kaduna and yet draw salaries from Kogi State while some civil servants were diverting government funds.
After the exercise and those culpable were identified, the governor gave a directive for the payment of all workers that were cleared to be paid.
The former Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Chief Clarence Olafemi while speaking with THISDAY on the issue, said: “There are problems associated with the staff screening in the state, but it did not start on January 27 , 2016 when Alhaji Yahaya Bello came on board.
“These problems did not start with the immediate past governor, Captain Idris Wada, neither did it start with former governor of the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris. It all started from the day when Kogi State was created from Benue and Kwara States in August 27, 1991.
“At that time people were directed to go back to their state and people moved to form the new civil service in Kogi State without proper documentation. People had to go back and started perfecting their documents through forgery to justify the grade they claimed to belong.
“There was no data base. The problems started from the merger of Benue and Kwara civil service . The system was highly polluted, criminal things were done as people who are not even civil servants came with claims that they were in the service.
“Some claimed level 12, but with no evidence and there was no transfer of files from both states to authenticate genuine staff. Some people even conjured certificates, conjured promotion, degree certificates were being used by some people who have never gone to the four walls of a university.
“They did all of these without having it in mind that a day of reckoning may come. This uncivilised behaviour led to what came to be known as over bloated civil service in the state and there was no administration that did not feel the negative impacts of this problem.”
Olafemi, who was former acting governor in Kogi State, said when he was in office the problem was identified and that it was what gave birth to crisis ridden Sally Tibot screening exercise during the tenure of Alhaji Ibrahim Idris.
According to him, the concept of the screening then was to clear all the mess, but Sally Tibot was behaving like emperor and the House of Assembly then passed a bill that she must leave the state within 24 hours, “little did we know that the dead body we claimed to have buried, the legs are still out side,” he added.
“We could have cautioned the woman who handled the screening exercise may be she could have succeeded in reducing the mess by 50 percent.
“Also, during the tenure of the immediate past administration of Idris Wada another screening committee was inaugurated. It was headed by a Permanent Secretary as at that time, Mrs Deborah Ogunmola . The committee did a fantastic job and submitted its report to the governor but there was no executive courage to implement the committee recommendations.
“All of these added together to the extent that when Governor Bello took over he needed to spend over 80 percent of the monthly allocation in servicing less than 10 percent population of the state who are civil servants. I learnt that due to the porous nature of the state civil service, one person takes the salaries of fifteen people”, he lamented.
During the exercise, a staff of the Kogi State Pension Board, Mr. Atabor John Momoh, was arrested by security agents for allegedly defrauding the state to the tune of N4.3 million naira, funds meant for payment of pensioners allowance.
It was gathered that the Kogi State Staff Screening Committee, while reviewing Momoh’s bank statement, discovered that he allegedly diverted funds meant for payment of pensioners allowance into his personal account.
According to the committee, Mr. Momoh who was identified to have huge cash inflow in his account in the last screening exercise, is in charge of reconciliation of failed payment in the State Pension Board.
According to the Director General of Media and Publicity to Governor Bello, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo, “This exercise is about the people in many ways. A secondary school certificate holder who is employed as a Medical Officer and placed on Grade Level 13 is a risk to the society.
“A person who replaced a dead worker who had been trained to handle certain specialised jobs will surely be incapable of functioning effectively. A compromised civil service is detrimental to growth and development.
“This exercise is the way to go. It is for the people. It is in the interest of the state. Previous administrations shied away from it and the state suffered for it. We should applaud the political will of the governor to do this for the good people of Kogi State.
“Some pensioners who are yet to be paid will be attended to and every verified worker of the state will receive his or her arrears. The people must join hands with government to cleanse the system and free funds for development”.
Fanwo said government is concerned about the plight of cleared workers who were yet to be paid, saying government would work to ensure they were paid as soon as possible.
When the Kogi State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress marked the one year anniversary of the screening exercise, the Chairman, Comrade Onu Edoka and other members of the union commended the governor for the exercise.
The union leader while speaking during a visit to the governor said the screening exercise had positive impact on workers in the state even though some people were yet to be paid.
According to him, the exercise has changed the attitude of workers. He said henceforth no workers in the state would allow money to be paid into his or her account without due process.
Edoka noted that those conniving to defraud the state of millions of naira through workers and pensioners salary would automatically have s change of heart to avoid embarrassment.
He however urged the governor to kindly pay workers and pensioners that had been cleared so that they could meet up with their responsibilities, which is the general view among the people of the state who believe that now that the exercise has ended the government should pay workers that have been screened by the committee so that workers can meet up with the responsibilities.
While it is not clear how much the state government has saved as a result of the exercise, the government now has a chance to weed out fraudulent workers.