Workers of ITF  Drag DG , Oluwatoyin Ogun Before EFCC

 

 

Ignatius Okorocha, Abuja

 

Concern Staff of the Industrial Training Funds, ( ITF ), may have concluded arrangement to drag Afiz Oluwatoyin  Ogun before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC), for an alleged Financial infraction since his appointment.

 

Sources at the Headquarters of  ITF, in Jos who pleaded anonymity told our Correspondent that against extant law Mr. Oluwatoyin since he assumed office had  acquired official accommodation instead of one, in Lagos, Jos and Abuja for his three wives.

” The DG is entitled to one Guest House, but when he took over he paid for three Houses in Lagos, Jos and Abuja” said our sources.

 

Continue the sources disclosed that

” You could imagine a retired Director of Finance in ITF still making payments”

 

” The DG when he assumed office  inherited a good number of vehicles ,  but as we speak, he abandoned  them purchased new ones and he is in the process of purchasing another ones with plans  plan to acquire a new jeep  used  by the  FCT minister for the Edir Fitr as a status symbol ‘”

 

While the allegations of financial infractions hangs on his head like the swords of Damascus, the allegations of abuse of procurement procedures against Oluwatoyin stinks to high heaven.

A senior staff in the Maitama office told our Correspondent that” apart from the retired deputy Director ( name withheld), who the DG is using as conduit, several contracts awarded since he assumed office , he did not adhere to the procurement Act, in fact he just a sole administrator ”

” He said he is Tinubu’ boy and nobody can touch him, in fact he threatened Staff with transfer”

 

Apart from the petition to the anti graft commission, the staff are on the verge of staging a massive protest for the removal of the DG.

His appointment as DG did not come  without reservations  and apprehension as our checks revealed that he lacked requisite qualifications to manage such agency.

 

 

Our checks at the headquarters of the industrial Training Funds (ITF) in Jos and corporate office in Maitama, in Abuja paint a picture of once bubbling institution going down the drain with staff morale on the edge.

 

The development has turned the once bubbling organisation into one of despair, just as staff morale and attitude to work have hit the lowest mark so far since the establishment of the Fund by the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) in the 1970s.

 

Seven months after his appointment and takeover of the Fund’s leadership, multiple sources in Jos and Abuja told our reporter they are aware that there are grumblings within the organisation.

These are not unconnected with the new leadership style and certain ‘reforms’ and policy tincturing that have amounted to high-level administrative missteps that have dampened the cognate mood of the personnel, and set the Fund on the course of collapsing from within.

 

According to the staff, “the transfers have led to queries by the Fund’s workforce’’ concerning the plans of the DG for the future of the organization.

According to the insider source, “in the latest round of transfers released on May 13, 2024, by the Administration and Human Resources Department of the agency, several top officials of the Finance and Procurement Departments were redeployed to other departments in an exercise that has been condemned by workers within the organisation as a serious infraction of the organization’s career policy”.

The redeployments indicate that “top Directors in the Finance and Accounts Department were moved to Departments other than their fields of specialization. For instance, Mr. Steve Ivarave, an ICAN chartered accountant was moved from finance and accounts to Administration and Human Resource Department to head General Services”.

The source also stated that “Yusuf Abdulmajid was moved to the Corporate Planning Department while Ibrahim Ahmed Bakori was moved to the Estate Management unit to head Project Management, while Ocheme Linus Agbo was redeployed to the Technical and Vocational Skills Training Department just as John Etim was moved from revenue to Internal Audit with no assigned portfolio”.

Our checks indicated that the haphazard transfers have striped the Finance Department of competent professionals in the leadership of the division.

This was as it was gathered that the redeployment exercise was based on a pattern that is completely alien to laid down rules and career progression in addition to being inconsistent with established rules of assignments and redeployments.

Further checks indicated that on April 3, 2024, 16 officers were redeployed to various offices of the Fund.

What especially stood out in that exercise was the redeployment of the Area Manager of one of the Lagos Offices, a Senior Deputy Director, who was posted to Sokoto Area Office, where he was expected to serve under an Assistant Director who is his junior officer.

Similarly, barely two months into office in December 2023, the new Director General who is hardly on the seat, reshuffled his Management team in an exercise that effectively put square pegs in round holes in an apparent effort to entrench his tribesmen in departments perceived to be lucrative.

A source said; “in that exercise, the Director General transferred Fulera Dikki, a career Administrative officer to the Business Training Department while Suleyol Fred Chagu, a career Public Relations officer was redeployed to the Corporate Planning Department just as Chioma Ogbonna, an ICAN Chartered Accountant was moved from Revenue Inspectorate and Compliance Department to the Research and Curriculum Development Department.

When our reporter visited the ITF headquarters, there was melancholy amidst apprehension as a result of fears of more deployments in the coming weeks.

The Director General could not be reached as he was said to be away from the office even as calls to his phone did not go through.