The Osun state government has continued to come under severe criticisms for its outrageous and economic-hostile methods at conducting a staff audit for its civil service.
Recall the Ademola Adeleke administration announced plans of a staff and workers’ verification with all civil servants expected to converge at a particular location.
It also insisted that workers produce a record of their bank statement spanning a period of three years and six months.
The scheme has since attracted loads of backlashes and intense push-backs from the workers who deemed it ‘outrageous’.
Reacting to the controversial scheme, Senator Ajibola Basiru, a former Commissioner of Justice in the state, faulted the Adeleke administration for their indifference to the current economic condition in the country, and deliberately bringing more hardship to the people who they should instead be assuaging from the effect of the subsidy removal.
Sen. Basiru also expressed dismay at the state govt’s demand that civil servants produce a bank statement spanning a period of three years and six months, questioning the link between such document and staff audit.
He said that ‘’even the Federal Government of Nigeria, with a far more robust civil servant population, when it came up with the resolve to eliminate ghost workers from the Federal civil service employment, went about the task systematically’’ probing, ‘’what is the excuse of the Osun Government that has a far less population of civil servants in conducting a simple task of Staff Audit?’’
Sen. Basiru also raised concerns about the mandate of the Ministry of Human ‘’that a consultant should be commissioned for a task that is purely administrative and which forms part of the core mandates of the Ministry of Human Resources?’’
He said in a statement , ‘’The dusts raised in many quarters by the recently announced Staff Audit by the new Government at the helm of affairs in Osun State is yet to settle. Staff Audit, a routine by Governments and even corporate bodies the world over is regarded as a normal and necessary exercise for performance assessment and budgeting. But like people will say, when a handshake goes beyond the elbow, one should be very wary and cautious.
‘’What has the request for bank statements, spanning a period of three years and six months, of civil servants has to do with Staff Audit? Why must all civil servants from all over the State converge in a place for the exercise? Did the promoters of the Staff Audit take into consideration the prevalent high price of gasoline and the effect on civil servants travelling from all nooks and crannies of the State to attend the Staff Audit?
‘’Has Staff Audit conducted in the State in the past not done at Agency level? When most forward looking and right-thinking State Governments are mapping out strategies to ameliorate and cushion the effect of subsidy removal on civil servants, our Awilo Logomba dancers in Bola Ige House are thinking in the reverse.
‘’Payroll audit procedures can take a few minutes to a few weeks, depending on the size of your organization and the extent of the audit. Logically speaking, the payroll department, in this instance, the Accountant General of the State’s Office and or the Department of Account in the various Agencies of the State, is responsible for running the payroll audits, but the Ministry of Human Resources must also be involved.
‘’Even the Federal Government of Nigeria, with a far more robust civil servant population, when it came up with the resolve to eliminate ghost workers from the Federal civil service employment, went about the task systematically with the World Bank assistance.
‘’Questionnaires, physical headcounts and preparation of comprehensive nominal rolls (staff rosters), scanned photographs, and the use of file numbers to locate the relevant people, compiling actual personnel costs and calculating personnel costs based on headcounts reflected in the nominal roll were adopted.
‘’So, what is the excuse of the Osun Government that has a far less population of civil servants in conducting a simple task of Staff Audit? What is the mandate of the Ministry of Human Resources that a consultant should be commissioned for a task that is purely administrative and which forms part of the core mandates of the Ministry of Human Resources?
‘’Governance is serious work. But when leaders of Government surround themselves with the right people, governance is rewarding with the sole satisfaction that citizens are getting value for their taxes. Court jesters are always a disaster when they are given power.’’