EKSU Sacks Over 600 Workers Over Irregular Recruitment
The management of Ekiti State University, EKSU, Ado Ekiti, has sacked 600 staff of the institution allegedly recruited without following due process.
Their disengagement of the workers, recruited between 2016 and 2017 from the service of the university followed the consideration of a staff audit by the Governing Council of the institution.
Addressing journalists on Thursday in Ado Ekiti, the Vice-Chancellor of the state-owned university, Professor Edward Olanipekun said the staff audit was carried out by a firm of external auditors commissioned to undertake general auditing of staff in the university.
He said the affected workers were also found not to possess the requisite certificates from the primary level while some were said to be over-aged and worked above ages of 65 and 70 for non-academic and academic workers respectively.
Olanipekun revealed that the university will be able to save over N200 million monthly by the time the staff are expunged on the payroll.
According to him, ” 619 were illegally recruited between 2016 and 2017. Some were over-aged having clocked 68 or 69 but still working when the statute prescribed 65 for non- academic and 70 for academic staff.
“The workers were employed irregularly against university regulations within the period 2016-2018 thereby causing a major personnel misalignment and skyrocketing of the university wage bill by about 100 per cent within two years.
“In the Report of the Visitation Panel as accepted by the Government White Paper to the university which noted among other things that there was over staffing, redundancy and personnel misalignment in virtually all the sections of the university and which astronomically increased the wage bill of the University beyond its capacity to pay.
“The situation was so bad in the university that it was the monthly contributions of members of staff who belong to some Cooperative, Thrift and Credit Societies in the University that were partly and on a monthly basis used by the then university administration to pay the salaries of those that were irregularly employed and who interestingly refused to join any of the Cooperative, Thrifts and Credit Societies.
“228 members of staff could not produce/show evidence of Primary School Leaving Certificate. There were some ghost workers whose names were found on the university payroll without being on the university nominal role.
“Some members of staff presented falsified birth and educational certificates. Some of the members of staff lacked the required basic educational qualification.
“Some members of staff were illegally retained in the university services after having been due to retire. There are other cases of over aged staff. Some others lacked the required basic educational qualification.
“Consequently after due consideration of the issues involved, and the overall best interest of the university in being properly positioned for local relevance and global competitiveness, the Governing Council of Ekiti State University has directed that those who were found to have fallen into the categories above be disengaged of their appointments forthwith in accordance with the university regulations”, he said.
