- It has become imperative to make further public statements concerning the issues that have followed the illegal recruitment and job racketeering saga that emanated from the 2022 recruitment exercise and its fallouts to dispel various misconceptions.
- In 2022, the then Management of the OAUTHC, Ile-Ife, Osun State sought and obtained from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) a waiver to recruit a total of Four Hundred and Fifty (450) fresh staff into vacant clinical and non-clinical positions.
The approved waiver was meant to recruit Forty-One (41) non-clinical staff and Four Hundred and Nine (409) clinical staff, into specific cadres.
- The recruitment was conducted in two phases and subsequent reviews have revealed deliberate and malicious mismanagement of the entire process.
There were no valid applications, documentation was absent or poor, and there were no calls for nor were there dates slated for interviews (both written and oral).
- Letters of appointment were merely given to prospective persons from slots granted to various known and unknown patrons or purchased monetarily or through other clandestine ways.
Many lacked the necessary basic qualifications and requirements or falsified their records.
The letters offered employment in various positions that were either not existent or required, and if at all needed certainly not in such huge amounts in any tertiary Hospital system.
Such skill sets are not beneficial to patient care and as such are never employed in hospital settings on industrial scales.
- In summary, the fact-finding by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has revealed that at least Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Twenty-Three (2,423) letters of employment were milled out for various cadres instead of the Four Hundred and Fifty (450) required and approved by the Federal Government.
Unfortunately, this has significantly hampered service delivery and tainted the public image of our Hospital, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the Federal Government. It has also exploited various innocent and desperate job seekers and the entire community.
- Indeed, some of the illegally recruited persons were maliciously captured and payrolled on various government financial platforms such as IPPIS and GIFMIS; thereby denying the critically needed staff from being enrolled, captured, or paid as there was no cash backing for the excess number recruited illegally.
It is worthy of note that financial clearance by the Budget Office of the federation was granted for just 450 fresh staff as catered for by the June 2022 waiver.
This issue has been brought by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to the sufficient notice of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation because of the involvement of at least five IPPIS officers (who are presently under disciplinary action).
- Mind you, it is based on the high incidences of irregularities and infractions in the implementation of the June 2022 approved waiver that the Permanent Secretary, of the Federal Ministry of Health & Social Welfare, Abuja (FMoH&SW) constituted a Fact-Finding Team to examine the entire process.
It should be on record that all these illegal recruitments and job racketeering PRECEDED the appointment of Professor John Okeniyi as the substantive Chief Medical Director of the Hospital.
- The trio of the erstwhile Acting Chief Medical Director, Dr. Afolabi Muyiwa Owojuyigbe, the erstwhile Acting Director of Administration, Mr. Tajudeen Adegoke Balogun, and the erstwhile Head of Establishment Mr. Ismaila Olalekan Ganiyu had been on suspension and have all been found to be culpable and guilty of high-level involvement in the following; illegal recruitment of staff; obtaining employment into the Public Service by fraud or misrepresentation; aiding and abetting employment into the Public Service by fraud, misrepresentation or in breach of the provisions of the PSR; enrolment into extant government’s payment platform(s) by fraud or misrepresentation; aiding and abetting enrolment into extant government’s payment platform(s) by fraud or misrepresentation; and any other acts unbecoming of a Public Officer. (PSR No. 100402 (aa, ab, ac, ad and ae). The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate has ordered the DISMISSAL OF THE TRIO WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT.
- The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has also directed the Hospital Management to enforce compliance with the June 2022 waiver granted by cleaning the nominal roll and ensuring that persons who had been captured and employed under the 2022 waivers (pay-rolled, captured on IPPIS platform or not) are to undergo a rigorous suitability competency test to determine their suitability for the cadres and numbers as contained in the said waiver.
Also, all persons aspiring to posts in cadres not captured under the waiver have been advised to exit from the services of the Hospital.
- Affected applicants should be on the lookout for further instructions for the dates and details for the competency test to ascertain those to be employed on the June 2022 waiver.
- As a follow-up to the above, reports of compliance will be forwarded to the Authorities in Abuja and this will qualify the Hospital to apply for an ACCELERATED WAIVER TO RECRUIT MORE STAFF. All applicants are also enjoined to be on the lookout for this.
Signed: Management
3rd February 2022
