Job-For-Cash Scandal Hits Delta Polytechnic

From Ochei Matthew, Asaba
More facts have emerged over the circumstances surrounding the sack of two labour union leaders in the Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku over phantom charges by the school council and management.
Chapter chairman of ASUP, Barr. Tobechukwu Ogidi corroborated his counterpart Comrade Anthony Ezaga of NASUP by insisting that their sack was not unconnected with the employment of over 300 persons who allegedly paid their way into the system.
The ASUP Chairman said some of the persons affected had written to him complaining that their names have been removed from government payroll, and management was not giving them any explanation.
Ogidi said: “But the government seems to be punishing one part because giving and taking bribe are two offences rolled into one. Government seems to be avoiding those people employed. The panel should also invite them and hear from those people employed.
“The figure of those employed is over 300 but the position of the state government is that they were not given approvals, and that is why those people have not been paid for the past nine months, even though most of them are still coming to work and performing their job.”
The management claimed that the rector and registrar’s signatures were forged in the letters of appointment, without their knowledge.
Sources alleged that a brother to the registrar, Henry Onyewenu, was caught in 2014 and allegedly confessed to being involved in employment racketeering, yet he was neither put on interdiction nor sacked.
A source who pleaded anonymity told The Dream Daily: “Everything about the employment racket is a fraud. It is not possible to talk to those who were affected because they are still trying to save their jobs.
“The issue is if you have about 300 people working illegally in an organisation and management is saying that they don’t know anything about them, who opened files for them? Who posted them to different departments?
“How did they get approval to compute their financial details and send to pre-audit and put on payroll? Those are not the things that clerks do; without the approval of the rector nobody is going to open file for you.
“Without the directive of the rector and registrar, no staff in personnel will touch your issue and these people are still working till today.
“If they claim that they don’t know the people and government has through one way or the other exposed them as illegal employees, they should have left the place but as we speak, they are still working.
“How can they now say their signatures were forged or that they don’t know how those people got into the system?
Investigations revealed that some of the affected employees had their employment back-dated illegally in order to claim arrears.
The employment racket dated from 2013. Apart from 22 people, all others do not have approvals.
Besides the over 300 academic staff, the rector and registrar were said to have employed over 200 non-academic staff illegally as permanent staff and ad-hoc staff on a wage of N20,000 for junior staff and N50,000 for senior staff.
It was learnt that some of the job seekers paid between N800,000 and N1.2 million for job placement.