……as the DG is still facing ICPC probes
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By Omotolani Oresanwo
The embattled Prof. Innocent Ujah, the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) has been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for interrogation on allegations of corruption in his administration of NIMR affairs in the last 5 years as the Director General.
Reliable source disclosed that the EFCC invitation was delivered to the Director General’s office a few days ago.
Prof Ujah and some top management staff of the Institute in recent times has been a regular guest at the Lagos Office of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The Procurement Officer, Mr. Daniel Ochigbo was sighted at the ICPC office on Tuesday October 27 and Wednesday October 28 2015 along with batches of workers allegedly recruited fraudulently into NIMR without following due process.
It is recalled that some of the paramount corruption allegations against Prof. Ujah are the misappropriation of funds, and fraudulent employment of about 70 workers and the distortion of staff nominal rolls to cover-up the fraudulent practice.
A reliable source who spoke in confidence with InfoTrust disclosed that, “In December 2014, about 70 workers who assumed duty in January 2015 were fraudulently employed into the Institute and they were never interviewed. The employment letters issued to these set of workers were back-dated to December 2013 and the salary arrears paid the new staff for the one year (2014) they did not work for were reported being refunded to an account number clandestinely given to each of these new staff to pay the money into.
The alleged fraudulent recruitment exercise did not follow due process as there was neither internal nor external advertisement to fill these positions that comprised of non-existing cadres such as Scientific Officers in the Institute’s scheme of service and organogram.
Our source lamented that this fraudulent action of the Director General and the Director of Administration, Alhaji A.S. Yunusazazzau has caused a deliberate damage to the image of the Institute and federal government service through indulging young Nigerians with fraudulent practices by issuing them letters of employment dated 2013 whereas these ones assumed duty in January 2015.
Our source continued, “A mathematical analogy of the amount of money that could have been realized from the job scam by the syndicate in NIMR that is alleged to have been masterminded by the Director General and the Director of Administration is modestly estimated at about N45.5million. This modest estimate was arrived at if on the average each of the recruited 70 workers that returned 13 months salaries that they were directed to pay into a bank account earns the sum of N50,000 per month.
“Efforts are being made by Prof. Ujah and other key persons of the syndicate to cover up the truth of the matter in order to pervert justice. Some of those new workers who were employed in January 2015 but whose letters of employment read 2013 were deliberately shielded from appearing before the ICPC. It is only those who were project staff for years but absorbed from the Institute’s APIN/PEPFAR project into mainstream NIMR payroll that were presented to ICPC. Those ones who were freshly recruited from outside into NIMR, they ensured that they did not make any appearance at the ICPC office.
InfoTrust reliably gathered that despite the on-going investigation by ICPC on corrupt practices perpetrated in office by Prof. Ujah, he seems not to show any sign of remorse as he continues in this act with impunity.
Ujah was recently reported by another source to have directed that another male relation of his, who also bears Ujah, be issued an employment letter without interview and other due process.
InfoTrust learnt that Prof. Ujah’s directive was turned down by the officers whom the letter passed through their respective tables for necessary action. Another cousin of the Director General working in his office as a clerk was employed with just one Credit in his O’Level/Secondary School Leaving Certificate. The Procurement Officer who is another kinsman of the Director General was also learnt to have been employed with HND certificate and later presented a B.Sc certificate a few months after assuming duty was placed on CONHESS 09 rather than on the rightful place of CONHESS 07.
He is also accused of indulging in gross misconduct during the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) enrollment exercise with the inclusion of scores of new names into the payroll of NIMR in November 2013 and December 2014 respectively.
The IPPIS enrollment exercise in NIMR was deliberately manoeuvred and delayed for about 6 months by the Director General and the Director of Administration in order to perfect their plan of misconduct.
The Director General through the Director of Administration tactically sent away the IPPIS officials sent to NIMR from Abuja to capture the staff bio-metrics in early 2013 allegedly demanding for their official letter of introduction.
The source quipped, “When the IPPIS officials came in November 2013 and eventually completed capturing the staff bio-metrics within a week between November 1st and 7th 2013 in NIMR, their laptops mysteriously disappeared overnight from the office where these equipment were kept under lock and key on the night of their last day of bio-metrics capturing. The most dramatic aspect of the story is that the office where the laptops were stolen from is barely 5 metres from the security post of the Institute. Also, there was no sign of breakage on the office door key that has strong iron bars as burglary proof which means the burglars who went away with laptops had the keys to the office to have been able to have access into the office effortlessly”.
The December 2014 manoeuvring which alleged involved enrollment of the 70 workers fraudulently recruited into IPPIS database caused the delay in the payment for NIMR workers’ salaries for weeks. The December 2014 and January 2015 salaries were unduly delayed consequent to this alleged perpetrated fraud.
Our source in a bitter voice said,”the delay in salary payment caused severe financial embarrassment and difficulties for the workers and their dependants during the Christmas period of 2014 as many could neither celebrate the Christmas nor pay their children’s tuition fees in January 2015 on resumption of schools.
“The cause of the delay in salary payment is evident in the press statement credited to Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, that some agencies were discovered to have fraudulently inflated their staff emoluments which triggered the electronic system of IPPIS to shut itself on the affected agencies.
“There are reports of withdrawal of millions of naira for institutional meetings which the Director General is a part but were never held. For example, the withdrawal of millions of naira for the Institute’s Governing Board meetings that were never held but simply shared during the tenure of the immediate past Governing Board of the Institute that was one of the Boards of Ministries, departments, parastatals and agencies dissolved in July 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari. Also, there are reports of Board of Trustee (BoT) meetings which were mischievously scheduled to hold outside Lagos in order to collect ‘fat’ allowances for out-of-station activities and for which money amounting to millions of naira for such meetings were collected but were never held”, the source added.
Reliable source revealed to InfoTrust that the Director General has been avoiding the call for the statutory Senior Management Committee (SMC) monthly meeting in the last 5 months. His reluctance to call for the statutory monthly meeting cannot but be attributed to the last one held in June 2015 which was adjudged as ‘very stormy’ and in which he was really shaken more than any of such meetings ever held since he assumed office as the Director General.
It was reported that some Directors present at that fateful meeting actually confronted the Director General which led to Prof. Ujah’s abrupt departure from the venue of the meeting with his tail in between his legs before the end of the meeting when he could no longer withstand the fireworks and heat the meeting generated through banters thrown at him. The SMC according to information is the highest administrative and decision-making organ of the Institute.
