Non-payment of salaries: 32 NECO employees appeal to National Assembly for help
The 32 out of 276 employees of the National Examination Council (NECO) employed in December 2017 are appealing to the National Assembly for help. They want the law makers to call on NECO to regularize their employment and pay their salaries.
Speaking to our correspondent in Lagos under anonymity the two who volunteered on behalf of the 32 affected employees said they were employed in 2017 by the then Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Council, Professor Charles Uwakwe, before he was suspended and since then they have not been paid.
They complained that they have done the necessary documentation including the Integrated Pay-roll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) capturing but yet nothing has been done, adding that they have not been informed why they are not paid.
When asked when the vacancy was advertised by NECO in respect of their employment, they said NECO never advertised for vacancies in their history, adding that they were invited for documentation and IPPIS capturing after which they were contacted to submit their credentials for employment.
They said although their appointment letter was approved and issued in December 2017 before the then substantive Registrar, Prof. Uwakwe was suspended, the Acting Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Abubakar Gana, who took over from Prof. Uwakwe has refused to continue with the process.
According to them, “the most annoying thing is that about 244 people out of 276 have been receiving salaries since January 2018 till date. We were all posted to different states of the federation. We all resigned our jobs to take up this one and some of us have rented homes and worked for some time before we became stranded.
“We were never addressed or informed as to why we have not been paid our salaries. In fact all our communications to NECO management have never been attended to. NECO management hid the information of the 32 of us from the governing council overseeing the activities of NECO until we presented to the council ourselves. They never promised to pay in any occasion. They pretended as though we don’t exist.
“We have written to NECO, sent several text messages and even made calls but they refused to respond to our pleas/complaints. We also contacted the governing board of NECO with letters, calls and text messages but they have not been able to compel the acting registrar to do the needful. It is on this basis that we are using this medium to inform the National Assembly on what we are going through and appeal to them to look into the injustice perpetrated against us by NECO and give us justice. If after this nothing is done, we have no choice than take legal action against NECO.
“We want tell you that the top hierarchy of NECO had their own candidates who were employed with us who are receiving salaries. The substantive registrar that employed all of us did not complete the process of pay-rolling all of us before he was suspended by the governing board that was constituted in March 2018 by the ministry of education to investigate allegation of financial mismanagement leveled against him.
“When the acting registrar assumed power till date, he has refused to complete the process of pay-rolling the 32 of us who were not pay-rolled by the substantive registrar at the time he was leaving the office due to suspension. Letters written to the management and to the governing board proved abortive in compelling him to do the needful.
“Be informed also that as at July 2019, the ministry of finance passed a circular to all Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to complete the pay- rolling of staffs employed that are yet to be created on the IPPIS platform to ensure they start receiving their salaries. This affected about 21 MDA’s in the federation but only NECO did not comply to this circular. We contacted the then director of human resources who is now director of special duties about the circular and the schedule directed by the ministry of finance and all he told us was ‘noted’. He said the ministry of finance did not copy NECO. But when we went further to make our findings through IPPIS, an official told us that only MDA’s who submitted such complaints to the ministry of finance were copied. That means NECO did not submit our issue and that was why they were not copied.
“We want to also tell you, and very importantly that NECO management refused to disclose our issue to the governing board. When we discovered that the board was not aware of our issue, we then personally got their contact and presented our issue to them through the chairman and other members of the board.
“You should be aware that some members of the governing board raised the matter in one of their sittings late last year but the acting registrar defended himself by telling the board that the 32 of us affected was not posted and that is why he did not pay-roll us. So we then went further by sending evidences of our posting to members of the board ahead of their next sitting. To our greatest surprise, after their last sitting that was held in February this year, information got to us that the acting registrar told the board that he has settled and cleared the impending issue concerning us. We were aggrieved and devastated because there was no single circular or memo passed in regard to that claim. We have waited for close to a month and have decided to seek a higher authority to help us fight this injustice that has befall the 32 of us in NECO for nearly three years.”
Efforts by our correspondent to speak with the Acting Registrar of the Council, Mr. Abubakar M. Gana proved abortive as he did not pick his calls.
Speaking on the issue in a telephone interview with our correspondent, the Human Resources Director, NECO, Mr. Mustapha alleged that the entire process of that employment was a scam masterminded by the former Finance Director (name withheld) which he said is now a regular visit to the office of Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).
“Tell me where in the world do you see the Director of Finance conducting employment exercise instead of the Human Resources department? This shows that the employment exercise conducted in December 2017 was a scam, total fraud.”
“Again, where else in the world do you see employment being conducted in December instead of January? This shows that the exercise was a scam. It was hurried done by the former Director of Finance who is today a regular visitor at EFCC to answer questions.”
When asked why he said the employment exercise in question was a scam whereas some employees employed during that period are receiving salaries and some are not, Mr. Mustapha said because Federal government only gave approval for 250 people, adding that that was why the system locked against the remaining people after taking the approved number.
Reacting to the claim by the Human Resources Director, Mr. Mustapha, that the 2017 employment exercise at NECO under his supervision was a scam, the former Registrar and Chief Executive officer of the NECO, who is currently on suspension, Prof. Charles Ukwakwe, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, dispelled the Human Resources Director’s claim as untrue, saying “whoever is saying that is not saying the truth”
“If anybody is saying that the 2017 employment exercise in NECO under my supervision as the Registrar/Chief Executive was a scam, the person is liar.
“If it was a scam as claimed, why is it that majority of those employed during the period are receiving their salaries and others are not? Whoever is saying the exercise was a scam should think well,” Prof. Uwakwe said.
Some of the documents issued by NECO to the 32 affected employees and those written by them to NECO as sighted by our correspondent include: appointment letter dated December 13, 2020 with Ref: NECO/RO/SR/17/….. signed by the former Human Resources Director, Inuwa Audu Fuka on behalfof the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer; Notification form for IPPIS capturing dated January 21, 2019 signed by Human Resources Director, Inuwa Audu Fuka; Circular from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation; Federal Ministry of Finance with Ref: OAGF/IPPIS/93/1/87, dated August 29, 2019 to all MDAs to ensure completion of IPPIS formalities of newly employed staff signed by the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris.
Other letters are introduction letter by State coordinators of NECO on behalf of the newly employed staff posted to their stations to the Acting Registrar to pay-roll them; letter written and signed by the 32 affected employees to the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of NECO calling on them to intervene in the matter, dated October 16, 2019; letter written and signed by the 32 affected employees to the governing board of NECO appealing to them to intervene in the matter dated September 25, 2019; letter written and signed the 32 affected employees to the Acting Registrar, complaining of non-payment of salaries and appealing to him to intervene dated July 24, 2018 and staff Identification Card (ID) issued to them on January 29, 2018 and signed by the Human Resources Director, Inuwa Audu Fuka.
