The Federal Polytechnic Bali in Taraba state is fully enmashed into employment recceteering in just recent time, investigation has shown.
Investigation reveals that the institution employed over 250 members of both academic and non-academic staff in recent time without following due process as enshrined in the public service rules concerning employment into public offices.
Our reporter gathered that those issued with appointment letters were not duely interviewed before giving appointment letters to them.
It was also discovered that the institution disregarded the standard public service rules on employment into public offices by not complying with Federal Charcter Principles on employment into public offices.
One of the staff of the institution who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity said that the Polytechnic management has received an increase of N50 million on it’s former N30 million monthly allocation to clear backlog of outstanding staff promotion and migration allowances being owed to staff.
He accused the management of shortchanging staff of the Polytechnic by embarking on a sheddy and fraudulent employment which grossly violated the public service rules.
He also accused the management of issuing appointment letters to newly employed staff before asking them to write and submit their handwriting application letters.
Also”we noticed with dismay that the appointment letters issued to those new staff did not state the date of their resumption of duty which looks dubious and criminal.
“The management can decide to divert those funds they corruptly eamarked for the employment within the period in which those staff were employed.
“We are calling on the National Board for Technical Education, Federal Character Commission and the Federal ministry of education to probe the scanderlous employment carried out by the management of the Polytechnic spearheaded by Dr Jen, Rector of the Polytechnic.
“The relevant agencies should ensure that standard practices are opheld for day to day administration of the institution because the Polytechnic does not belong to a single individual, ethnic group and religion.
When contacted, Dr Saidu Jen said that he hurriedly issued the appointment letters to satisfy the MBTE requirements for the introduction of new courses and accreditation of other courses earlier introduced in the Polytechnic.
Jen, who spoke through the Acting Registrar, Isa El-Yakub said that the exercise was carried out with a good intention to beat up the NBTE date for visiting the Polytechnic for programmes accreditation.
According to him, the NBTE has given us a later notifying us of their visit for accreditation exercise.
He also debunked the allegation that the management violated public service rules insisting that the employment waiver was granted for employment of 80 members of staffsince 2015 and interview was conducted thereafter.
He further explained that the overshoot in the number of employed staff was due to another of vacancies inherent in the institution due to retirement and death of some staff.
He however, said that the management was already in the process of revilidating the employment process as they planned to reach out to to relevant agencies on the matter.
On the increament in allocation to the Polytechnic, the Acting Registrar said that the funds were granted in the 2019 budget for the purpose of employment as that had been the management demand over time.
He argued that the funds were not meant for any staff arrears but for the employment of staff to meet up manpower inadequacy in the Polytechnic.
Although, documents tendered to our the team of reporters showed that 80 slots were granted by FCC for employment and interview were conducted as far back as 2015 but over 250 we’re employed whose majority did not pass through the interview process.
Also funds were released in line with budget demand for the employment of more members of staff to augment the manpower shortfall.
