The Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) has appealed to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to urgently intervene in the crisis rocking the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC).
According to the union, the ongoing internal warfare within the Commission is capable of leading to operational paralysis if not addressed promptly, stressing that the situation has led to the continued delay of workers’ January salary.
Chairman of AUPCTRE, OSOPADEC branch, Sola Ademuwagun, while expressing concern over the escalating conflict on social media space, said that personal interests had superseded the Commission’s statutory mandate of focusing on developmental projects in the state’s oil-producing mandate areas.
Ademuwagun, who alleged that political leadership of the Commission had been attempting to subvert established procedure, stressed that at the top of the bureaucracy is the Administrative Secretary, describing the conflict as an assault on due process.
“Our sincere appeal is that the governor should urgently intervene in the system of OSOPADEC.
Not to probe the place, but the roles of the four principal officers, the chairman, the two executive directors and the administrative secretary, should be outlined for them, and at the same time, give them a tenable organogram whereby routing of files and system of the office is smoothly in the interest of the workers and the mandate areas.
“There have even been threats against us, the union leaders, over unfounded allegations that we were trying to agitate for the removal of the Chairman. And there was no meeting to that effect. Our names were even captured on social media, a vendetta, witch-hunting restructuring was singlehandedly done without the knowledge of the Administrative Secretary, with members of staff being threatened to comply or be dealt with.”
“On all the allegations that are going on, I want to say that due processes are not being followed when it comes to the routing of files. The other time, the chairman said that files should pass through an unbureaucratic procedure. At the top of the bureaucracy is the Administrative Secretary, so they want us to bypass the process,” the AUPCTRE chairman stated.
Meanwhile, one of the alleged officers, the Director, Project Planning and Development, Olubunmi Filani, explained that the allegations against him and others were not true.
He further stated that the allegation started in June last year, saying that the funds found in his personal account were for direct labour projects, which he described as the operational procedure of the Commission since the era of former Governor Olusegun Agagu.
Filani, who, however, insisted that all expenditures were for visible projects, including the renovation of schools, denied any diversion of funds.
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