Over 900 workers of the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti have been dismissed by the management for offences that contravene its condition of service.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Eddy Olanipekun, who made this known while addressing reporters in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, said the decision was taken by the Governing Council at its meeting on December 5.
Olanipekun noted that the decision was in compliance with the reports of an external private audit firms contracted to undertake a holistic audit of the workers and finances.
This, he said, was sequel to the recommendation of the Visitation Panel set up by Governor Kayode Fayemi, which identified among other things over staffing, redundancy and personnel misalignment in all the sections of the university as the problem hindering the institution from paying its workers.
Olanipekun said of the affected workers were 619 who were allegedly employed irregularly between 2016 and 2018 by the former Vice Chancellor, Prof. Samuel Oye Bandele, during his tenure and 228 workers who allegedly have some discrepancies in their educational qualifications.
Others included ghost workers and some workers who were said to be overaged.
Olanipekun said the university would be able to save over N200 million monthly by the time the workers’ names were removed from the payroll.
According to him, “619 were illegally recruited between 2016 and 2018. Some were overaged having turned 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 between 2016 and 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.
“Two hundred and twenty-eight members of staff could not produce/show evidence of Primary School Leaving Certificate. And there were some ghost workers whose names were found on the university payroll without being on the university nominal roll.
“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 workers. 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.”