The Governing Council of Ekiti State University has approved the recommendation to weed out 600 staff of the university.
That was after it considered and found merit in the report of the staff audit carried out by a firm of external auditors commissioned to undertake a general auditing of staff in the university.
The staff audit exercise had thrown up a couple of findings including 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.
In a release by the University’s Public Relations Officer, Bode Olofinmuagun, the Governing Council categorized those affected under eight headings:
(1) over 600 workers were employed irregularly against university regulations within the period 2016-2018, thereby causing a major personnel disalignment and skyrocketing of the university wage bill by about 100 per cent within two years.
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.
(2) 228 members of staff could not produce/show evidence of Primary School Leaving Certificate.
(3) There were some ghost workers whose names were found on the university pay roll without being on the university nominal role.
(4) Some members of staff presented falsified birth and educational certificates.
(5) Some of the members of staff lacked the required basic educational qualification.
(6) Some members of staff were illegally retained in the university services after having been due to retire.
(7) There are other cases of over aged staff
(8) Some others lacked the required basic educational qualification.
Olofinmuagun added in a statement on Thursday: “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 listed in 1-8 above be disengaged of their appointments forthwith in accordance with the university regulations.”
In a telephone chat by News On The Go spoke with some of the staff of the University, they said there is tension in the university community.
Although nobody had been served any such letter, staff employed between 2016 and 2018 are more tensed.
It was learnt that the university authorities is withholding the letter because the students are presently writing exams.
