628 teachers, 498 LG staff removed from Oyo payroll

A total of 1,459 workers in Oyo State, largely comprising of 628 teachers and 498 local government staff, have been expunged from the state government’s payroll, for possession of fake certificates.

The affected workers include 223 secondary school teachers, 405 primary school teachers, 236 who work in the ministries, 58 who work in educational institutions, 39 who work in parastatals and 498 who are local government staff.

This development is the latest in the ongoing restructuring exercise of the state government where 662 workers were earlier dismissed.

State Head of Service, Mr Soji Eniade, who spoke with Tribune Online on this development, however noted that the onus lied on the concerned 1,459 to prove that their certificates upon which they were employed were not fake.

He stated that the 1,459 were those out of a total of 1,884 challenged for having fictitious certificates who were yet to have their certificate issuing authorities like universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, authenticate their certificates.

Eniade pointed out that 425 had been cleared and reinstated on the payroll of government having proven that their certificates were genuine.

He added that the ongoing certificate checks of the workforce was side by side biometric verification to ascertain ghost workers, while government would also restructure the civil service to meet current realities in the state and the country, at large.

Furthermore, Eniade allayed fears of undue or untimely retirement, noting that workers were only disengaged from service if they attained 35 years of service or got to the retirement age of 60 or 65 years as applicable.

“With regards to the payroll, we have concluded the process on that. Another process has started, that is biometrics, capturing the bio data of those who are supposed to be on the payroll of government.

“The issue of certificate check is ongoing. It is not exercise that can be concluded within a specific period of time because the finality of their action is dependent on the issuing authorities, like the universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, who issue those certificates.”

The consultant engaged will go back to those institutions to reaffirm. The timeline, time process to actualise that particular action is dependent from the response of those institutions, moreover, we have so many higher institutions in the country.

“Those that have been challenged for having fictitious certificates are 1,884. Out of those 425 have been cleared and they have been reinstated on the payroll. 1,459 still have issues on their certificates and the onus is on them to prove that their certificates are not fake.”

“223 are secondary school teachers, 405 are primary school teachers, 236 who work in the ministries, 58 who work in educational institutions, 39 who work in parastatals, 498 who are local government staff.”

“But everyone is being given a second chance, as well as the possibility of human or computer error. So this is being sorted out not to punish those who are actually in possession of genuine certificates.”

“Majority of these teachers did their programmes on part time basis and that is where the issue of insincerity maybe on the part of operators of the part time teachers or the teachers themselves come in.”

“Majority of the certificates presented by these group are fake and we are probing further. If the certificates are found to be genuine, the owners will be reabsorbed. “

“Government is looking at the point of entry. Government is going back to that point of entry and government has every right, at any point in time, to check the system, whether at the entry point, middle point, even at the departure point.”

“The view of the government is that the civil service is sick presently and government is doing a kind of diagnosis to know what is wrong. And you remove the bad elements from the system to attain efficiency and effectiveness.”

“The activity is total and is broadly divided into quality control and quantity control. We are almost 90 percent done with the quantity control, to include issues of BVN, ghost workers. We are doing certificate checks to check the quality, in terms of certification, of the workforce. Then, government will look at whether the current structure of the civil service is realistic or not, to meet the realities of the present day Nigeria.”

“When you restructure, definitely you have to reengage some people, you do some merging, spread and redistribute staff.”

“The rule of retirement remains which comes first out of reaching 35 years of service or 60 years of age. If you have attained 35 years of service before getting to 60 years, you have to go first. Some people do not achieve 35 years of age before reaching the age of 60 years, they still have to go. Government rules of engagement are sacrosanct and have not been changed, except for educational institutions that have a waiver,” Eniade said.