The Osun State Government has directed its ministries,
departments and agencies to immediately implement the report of the panel that
recommended sacking of workers who secured employment with forged
certificates.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress in the state,
Jacob Adekomi, confirmed that 422
workers would be affected. He said the NLC’s intervention helped to reduce the
number of those listed for the exit door from 5,000 recommended to 422.
A statement by the Head of Service, Dr Festus Oyebade, dated
September 13th said the immediate past Rauf Aregbesola government engaged the
services of a firm, Captain Consulting, to verify the certificates of all civil
servants in the state in 2015. The statement reads;
“The panel submitted its report and it was adopted for
implementation by the immediate past administration.
However, when the new administration came on board in
November 2018, the leadership of Organised Labour Movement in the state
appealed passionately to the state government to have a rethink on the
implementation of the report.
“After much pressure from
labour, the government set up a
five-man panel to further examine the
report and make necessary recommendations in line with extant public service
rules and regulations.”
Adekomi said labour was involved in the verification from
the beginning, adding that the NLC
insisted that the report and recommendations be reviewed because it was
convinced that the recommendations of the firm was not a true reflection of the
audit.
“When the report was reviewed, only 422 civil servants,
whose cases were beyond us due to the rules of the service, will be affected.
But we interceded for the affected officers to ensure that
they were not prosecuted or even made to refund the money they earned during
their stay in service,” he said.
