Nadia Buari Slays In Black Ensemble
Nadia Buari Slays Too Beautiful...
Ministry fires
whistle-blower who exposed $229,000 fraud
On March 4, 20178:30 amIn Headlines, NewsComments
By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor
Just as the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against
Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay, Thursday took a swipe at two agencies of
the administration for still engaging in untidy deals, President
Mohammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight has taken more knocks, it was
revealed yesterday.
While the Federal Govern-ment has adopted and placed incentives for
whistle blowing as a means of fighting corruption in the country, top
government officials have slapped the government policy by terminating
the career of an assistant director, who raised the alarm that the sum
of $229,000 and N800,000 had been diverted by key officials in the
Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa, an agency under the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The whistle blower, Mr. Ntia Thompson, an assistant director with the
Directorate for Technical Cooperation in Africa, who blew the lid in the
fraud that embarrassed the key masterminds, was initially suspended
from work on December 19, 2016 and was finally dismissed from service on
February 7, 2017.
Whistle-blowers
According to a public notice, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,
KHADIJA BUKAR ABBA IBRAHIM, who supervises the DTCA, approved the
compulsory retirement of Ntia from work with immediate effect.
Although it was not clear as at last night if the letter had been served
on the sacked director, a copy of the notice of his dismissal had been
posted on the DTCA public notice board.
The sack letter signed by Sanda S. Isah, Head of Administration
Department in DTCA and addressed to all staff, said, “ I am directed to
inform you that following the recommendations of the Senior Staff
Appointment Promotion and Disciplinary Committee on Acts of Serious
Misconduct against Mr. Ntia U. Thompson, the Honourable Minister of
State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman Presidential
Inter-Ministerial Committee on the DTCA, has approved the Compulsory
Retirement of Mr. Ntia U. Thompson from the services of the DTCA with
effect from 7th February 2017.
“In view of the above, Mr. Ntia U Thompson ceased to be a staff of the
DTCA with effect from 7th February 2017.
“All members of staff and the general public are hereby advised to take
note”.
The letter was signed and placed on the public notice of the DTCA on
Friday with a handwritten instruction ‘Please Read’.
However, competent staff within the agency, who believe that the money
in question was actually diverted wonder why both the police and the
anti-graft agency whose attention was drawn to the fraud, turned a blind
eye to the inimical act and allowed the suspects to go scot-free and
boldly unleash their fangs on the victim.
Competent senior officials in the DTCA provided documents to allege some
of the 14-member panel raised by the government to probe the
allegations of breaching service rules levelled against the
whistleblower could have been compromised.
The officials provided a list of 11 new senior staff hurriedly employed
by the leadership of the DTCA without advertisement or declaration of
vacancies by the directorate in order to silence the panellists and get
them to ease out the whistleblower from the establishment.
The document shows that the 11 ‘new staff’ were all employed as either
Administrative Officer or Accounts Officer on the same date of December
30, 2016, just a day to the end of the year.
The officials confirmed that the new employees are either direct
children or relatives of the panel members who were supposed to
interview Mr. Thompson and write a report based on the civil service
regulations and decide on whether he should be commended for the act of
patriotism which he showed by reporting the diversion of the money in
question.
One of the officials in the DTCA said, “If the government wants to know
the truth about the identities of the 11 new staff and their
relationship with the members of the panel that recommended the
dismissal of Mr. Thompson, it should ask for the names of the new
workers, their state of origin and their parents and see if they are
related to the panellists.
“We have all the names and we can give them to the government any time
they are ready to do proper investigation to know if the right thing was
done and whether a minister and other top officials benefitted from the
diverted cash or not,” one of the aggrieved workers at DTCA said.
It was not clear whether the sack of the staff would be approved by the
Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, which has not
been informed of the ugly development.
Whistle blowing a new concept introduced by the present administration
to horn in graft, has reportedly led to the recovery of billions of
Naira so far but it is not clear why many top government officials are
frontally opposed to it.
It will he recalled that Ntia, as assistant director in charge of
Servicom Unit at the DTCA had written a petition to the EFCC last
December drawing attention to the surreptitious withdrawal of the sum of
$229,000 and another N800,000 from the agency’s account purportedly for
the purpose of celebrating the the tenth anniversary of the Nigerian
Technical Cooperation Fund (NTCF) which was allocated $36,852.00, and
monitoring of various projects executed from the Trust Fund across
Africa.
However, when Ntia got wind of the diversion of the fund, he immediately
reported the ugly development to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission asking it to investigate the fraud .
Findings showed that although the EFCC waded into the matter and
compelled the affected officials to refund the sum of N800,000, no
further action was taken against the officials to refund the $229,000
which they had already taken.
But a few days after the EFCC had begun investigation into the scam, the
whistle blower was summoned by the DTCA and queried on why he leaked
official documents to the anti-graft agency and the media thereby
exposing the agency to embarrassment.
Arising from the police report, the DTCA on December 19, 2016 formally
suspended Mr. Thompson from work and asked him to surrender all property
in his disposal to the agency with immediate effect. The suspension
letter with ref. No. DTCA/P.082 Vol 1 was entitled, “Letter of
suspension from duty” and signed by Sanda Isah, Head, Department of
Administration/Secretary SSAPDC.
The letter said, “You will recall that you indulged in a series of acts
of serious misconduct bordering on “violation of official oath of
secrecy”, “absence from duty without leave” and “disobeying lawful
instructions from superiors”. “Even though these acts were established
to be heinous violation of the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules
030402 (e, f, I, n, t, and w), management considered and meted on you
the compassionate penalties of “letter of reprimand, letter of serious
warning, and a query for abandoning official duties in defiance of
lawful instructions from superiors, respectively.
Yet, these infractions did not abate. “It will also be recalled that on
the 14th of July 2016, you wrote a petition to the Inspector General of
Police in which you alleged threat to your life and that of your family
members by the Acting Director-General, Mr. Mohammed Kachallah and
Mallam Garba Alhaji Mohammed, Head of Programme Management of DTCA.
“In view of the weighty nature of this allegation, the police carried
out a thorough inquest into the matter and turned in the final report.
The report exonerated the two officers mentioned in the allegation of
criminal intimidation thereby establishing that you made “false claims
against government officials”.
“Against the backdrop of these serious infractions, the
Inter-Ministerial meeting of the Senior Staff Appointment, Promotion and
Disciplinary Committee met and looked into these issues in line with
the provisions of the PSR. The committee recommended for your suspension
from office pending the outcome of a final report of a sub-committee
set up on the matter.
“In view of the above, you are hereby suspended from office immediately
in line with the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules 030205 and
030406 of the PSR. You are therefore directed to hand over all official
documents/properties in your possession to the most senior officer in
the unit.”
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/03/ministry-fires-whistle-blower-exposed-229000-fraud/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/03/ministry-fires-whistle-blower-exposed-229000-fraud/
Ministry fires
whistle-blower who exposed $229,000 fraud
On March 4, 20178:30 amIn Headlines, NewsComments
By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor
Just as the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against
Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay, Thursday took a swipe at two agencies of
the administration for still engaging in untidy deals, President
Mohammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight has taken more knocks, it was
revealed yesterday.
While the Federal Govern-ment has adopted and placed incentives for
whistle blowing as a means of fighting corruption in the country, top
government officials have slapped the government policy by terminating
the career of an assistant director, who raised the alarm that the sum
of $229,000 and N800,000 had been diverted by key officials in the
Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa, an agency under the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The whistle blower, Mr. Ntia Thompson, an assistant director with the
Directorate for Technical Cooperation in Africa, who blew the lid in the
fraud that embarrassed the key masterminds, was initially suspended
from work on December 19, 2016 and was finally dismissed from service on
February 7, 2017.
Whistle-blowers
According to a public notice, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,
KHADIJA BUKAR ABBA IBRAHIM, who supervises the DTCA, approved the
compulsory retirement of Ntia from work with immediate effect.
Although it was not clear as at last night if the letter had been served
on the sacked director, a copy of the notice of his dismissal had been
posted on the DTCA public notice board.
The sack letter signed by Sanda S. Isah, Head of Administration
Department in DTCA and addressed to all staff, said, “ I am directed to
inform you that following the recommendations of the Senior Staff
Appointment Promotion and Disciplinary Committee on Acts of Serious
Misconduct against Mr. Ntia U. Thompson, the Honourable Minister of
State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman Presidential
Inter-Ministerial Committee on the DTCA, has approved the Compulsory
Retirement of Mr. Ntia U. Thompson from the services of the DTCA with
effect from 7th February 2017.
“In view of the above, Mr. Ntia U Thompson ceased to be a staff of the
DTCA with effect from 7th February 2017.
“All members of staff and the general public are hereby advised to take
note”.
The letter was signed and placed on the public notice of the DTCA on
Friday with a handwritten instruction ‘Please Read’.
However, competent staff within the agency, who believe that the money
in question was actually diverted wonder why both the police and the
anti-graft agency whose attention was drawn to the fraud, turned a blind
eye to the inimical act and allowed the suspects to go scot-free and
boldly unleash their fangs on the victim.
Competent senior officials in the DTCA provided documents to allege some
of the 14-member panel raised by the government to probe the
allegations of breaching service rules levelled against the
whistleblower could have been compromised.
The officials provided a list of 11 new senior staff hurriedly employed
by the leadership of the DTCA without advertisement or declaration of
vacancies by the directorate in order to silence the panellists and get
them to ease out the whistleblower from the establishment.
The document shows that the 11 ‘new staff’ were all employed as either
Administrative Officer or Accounts Officer on the same date of December
30, 2016, just a day to the end of the year.
The officials confirmed that the new employees are either direct
children or relatives of the panel members who were supposed to
interview Mr. Thompson and write a report based on the civil service
regulations and decide on whether he should be commended for the act of
patriotism which he showed by reporting the diversion of the money in
question.
One of the officials in the DTCA said, “If the government wants to know
the truth about the identities of the 11 new staff and their
relationship with the members of the panel that recommended the
dismissal of Mr. Thompson, it should ask for the names of the new
workers, their state of origin and their parents and see if they are
related to the panellists.
“We have all the names and we can give them to the government any time
they are ready to do proper investigation to know if the right thing was
done and whether a minister and other top officials benefitted from the
diverted cash or not,” one of the aggrieved workers at DTCA said.
It was not clear whether the sack of the staff would be approved by the
Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, which has not
been informed of the ugly development.
Whistle blowing a new concept introduced by the present administration
to horn in graft, has reportedly led to the recovery of billions of
Naira so far but it is not clear why many top government officials are
frontally opposed to it.
It will he recalled that Ntia, as assistant director in charge of
Servicom Unit at the DTCA had written a petition to the EFCC last
December drawing attention to the surreptitious withdrawal of the sum of
$229,000 and another N800,000 from the agency’s account purportedly for
the purpose of celebrating the the tenth anniversary of the Nigerian
Technical Cooperation Fund (NTCF) which was allocated $36,852.00, and
monitoring of various projects executed from the Trust Fund across
Africa.
However, when Ntia got wind of the diversion of the fund, he immediately
reported the ugly development to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission asking it to investigate the fraud .
Findings showed that although the EFCC waded into the matter and
compelled the affected officials to refund the sum of N800,000, no
further action was taken against the officials to refund the $229,000
which they had already taken.
But a few days after the EFCC had begun investigation into the scam, the
whistle blower was summoned by the DTCA and queried on why he leaked
official documents to the anti-graft agency and the media thereby
exposing the agency to embarrassment.
Arising from the police report, the DTCA on December 19, 2016 formally
suspended Mr. Thompson from work and asked him to surrender all property
in his disposal to the agency with immediate effect. The suspension
letter with ref. No. DTCA/P.082 Vol 1 was entitled, “Letter of
suspension from duty” and signed by Sanda Isah, Head, Department of
Administration/Secretary SSAPDC.
The letter said, “You will recall that you indulged in a series of acts
of serious misconduct bordering on “violation of official oath of
secrecy”, “absence from duty without leave” and “disobeying lawful
instructions from superiors”. “Even though these acts were established
to be heinous violation of the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules
030402 (e, f, I, n, t, and w), management considered and meted on you
the compassionate penalties of “letter of reprimand, letter of serious
warning, and a query for abandoning official duties in defiance of
lawful instructions from superiors, respectively.
Yet, these infractions did not abate. “It will also be recalled that on
the 14th of July 2016, you wrote a petition to the Inspector General of
Police in which you alleged threat to your life and that of your family
members by the Acting Director-General, Mr. Mohammed Kachallah and
Mallam Garba Alhaji Mohammed, Head of Programme Management of DTCA.
“In view of the weighty nature of this allegation, the police carried
out a thorough inquest into the matter and turned in the final report.
The report exonerated the two officers mentioned in the allegation of
criminal intimidation thereby establishing that you made “false claims
against government officials”.
“Against the backdrop of these serious infractions, the
Inter-Ministerial meeting of the Senior Staff Appointment, Promotion and
Disciplinary Committee met and looked into these issues in line with
the provisions of the PSR. The committee recommended for your suspension
from office pending the outcome of a final report of a sub-committee
set up on the matter.
“In view of the above, you are hereby suspended from office immediately
in line with the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules 030205 and
030406 of the PSR. You are therefore directed to hand over all official
documents/properties in your possession to the most senior officer in
the unit.”
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/03/ministry-fires-whistle-blower-exposed-229000-fraud/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/03/ministry-fires-whistle-blower-exposed-229000-fraud/
Ministry fires
whistle-blower who exposed $229,000 fraud
On March 4, 20178:30 amIn Headlines, NewsComments
By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor
Just as the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against
Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay, Thursday took a swipe at two agencies of
the administration for still engaging in untidy deals, President
Mohammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight has taken more knocks, it was
revealed yesterday.
While the Federal Govern-ment has adopted and placed incentives for
whistle blowing as a means of fighting corruption in the country, top
government officials have slapped the government policy by terminating
the career of an assistant director, who raised the alarm that the sum
of $229,000 and N800,000 had been diverted by key officials in the
Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa, an agency under the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The whistle blower, Mr. Ntia Thompson, an assistant director with the
Directorate for Technical Cooperation in Africa, who blew the lid in the
fraud that embarrassed the key masterminds, was initially suspended
from work on December 19, 2016 and was finally dismissed from service on
February 7, 2017.
Whistle-blowers
According to a public notice, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,
KHADIJA BUKAR ABBA IBRAHIM, who supervises the DTCA, approved the
compulsory retirement of Ntia from work with immediate effect.
Although it was not clear as at last night if the letter had been served
on the sacked director, a copy of the notice of his dismissal had been
posted on the DTCA public notice board.
The sack letter signed by Sanda S. Isah, Head of Administration
Department in DTCA and addressed to all staff, said, “ I am directed to
inform you that following the recommendations of the Senior Staff
Appointment Promotion and Disciplinary Committee on Acts of Serious
Misconduct against Mr. Ntia U. Thompson, the Honourable Minister of
State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman Presidential
Inter-Ministerial Committee on the DTCA, has approved the Compulsory
Retirement of Mr. Ntia U. Thompson from the services of the DTCA with
effect from 7th February 2017.
“In view of the above, Mr. Ntia U Thompson ceased to be a staff of the
DTCA with effect from 7th February 2017.
“All members of staff and the general public are hereby advised to take
note”.
The letter was signed and placed on the public notice of the DTCA on
Friday with a handwritten instruction ‘Please Read’.
However, competent staff within the agency, who believe that the money
in question was actually diverted wonder why both the police and the
anti-graft agency whose attention was drawn to the fraud, turned a blind
eye to the inimical act and allowed the suspects to go scot-free and
boldly unleash their fangs on the victim.
Competent senior officials in the DTCA provided documents to allege some
of the 14-member panel raised by the government to probe the
allegations of breaching service rules levelled against the
whistleblower could have been compromised.
The officials provided a list of 11 new senior staff hurriedly employed
by the leadership of the DTCA without advertisement or declaration of
vacancies by the directorate in order to silence the panellists and get
them to ease out the whistleblower from the establishment.
The document shows that the 11 ‘new staff’ were all employed as either
Administrative Officer or Accounts Officer on the same date of December
30, 2016, just a day to the end of the year.
The officials confirmed that the new employees are either direct
children or relatives of the panel members who were supposed to
interview Mr. Thompson and write a report based on the civil service
regulations and decide on whether he should be commended for the act of
patriotism which he showed by reporting the diversion of the money in
question.
One of the officials in the DTCA said, “If the government wants to know
the truth about the identities of the 11 new staff and their
relationship with the members of the panel that recommended the
dismissal of Mr. Thompson, it should ask for the names of the new
workers, their state of origin and their parents and see if they are
related to the panellists.
“We have all the names and we can give them to the government any time
they are ready to do proper investigation to know if the right thing was
done and whether a minister and other top officials benefitted from the
diverted cash or not,” one of the aggrieved workers at DTCA said.
It was not clear whether the sack of the staff would be approved by the
Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, which has not
been informed of the ugly development.
Whistle blowing a new concept introduced by the present administration
to horn in graft, has reportedly led to the recovery of billions of
Naira so far but it is not clear why many top government officials are
frontally opposed to it.
It will he recalled that Ntia, as assistant director in charge of
Servicom Unit at the DTCA had written a petition to the EFCC last
December drawing attention to the surreptitious withdrawal of the sum of
$229,000 and another N800,000 from the agency’s account purportedly for
the purpose of celebrating the the tenth anniversary of the Nigerian
Technical Cooperation Fund (NTCF) which was allocated $36,852.00, and
monitoring of various projects executed from the Trust Fund across
Africa.
However, when Ntia got wind of the diversion of the fund, he immediately
reported the ugly development to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission asking it to investigate the fraud .
Findings showed that although the EFCC waded into the matter and
compelled the affected officials to refund the sum of N800,000, no
further action was taken against the officials to refund the $229,000
which they had already taken.
But a few days after the EFCC had begun investigation into the scam, the
whistle blower was summoned by the DTCA and queried on why he leaked
official documents to the anti-graft agency and the media thereby
exposing the agency to embarrassment.
Arising from the police report, the DTCA on December 19, 2016 formally
suspended Mr. Thompson from work and asked him to surrender all property
in his disposal to the agency with immediate effect. The suspension
letter with ref. No. DTCA/P.082 Vol 1 was entitled, “Letter of
suspension from duty” and signed by Sanda Isah, Head, Department of
Administration/Secretary SSAPDC.
The letter said, “You will recall that you indulged in a series of acts
of serious misconduct bordering on “violation of official oath of
secrecy”, “absence from duty without leave” and “disobeying lawful
instructions from superiors”. “Even though these acts were established
to be heinous violation of the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules
030402 (e, f, I, n, t, and w), management considered and meted on you
the compassionate penalties of “letter of reprimand, letter of serious
warning, and a query for abandoning official duties in defiance of
lawful instructions from superiors, respectively.
Yet, these infractions did not abate. “It will also be recalled that on
the 14th of July 2016, you wrote a petition to the Inspector General of
Police in which you alleged threat to your life and that of your family
members by the Acting Director-General, Mr. Mohammed Kachallah and
Mallam Garba Alhaji Mohammed, Head of Programme Management of DTCA.
“In view of the weighty nature of this allegation, the police carried
out a thorough inquest into the matter and turned in the final report.
The report exonerated the two officers mentioned in the allegation of
criminal intimidation thereby establishing that you made “false claims
against government officials”.
“Against the backdrop of these serious infractions, the
Inter-Ministerial meeting of the Senior Staff Appointment, Promotion and
Disciplinary Committee met and looked into these issues in line with
the provisions of the PSR. The committee recommended for your suspension
from office pending the outcome of a final report of a sub-committee
set up on the matter.
“In view of the above, you are hereby suspended from office immediately
in line with the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules 030205 and
030406 of the PSR. You are therefore directed to hand over all official
documents/properties in your possession to the most senior officer in
the unit.”
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/03/ministry-fires-whistle-blower-exposed-229000-fraud/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/03/ministry-fires-whistle-blower-exposed-229000-fraud/
Ministry fires
whistle-blower who exposed $229,000 fraud
On March 4, 20178:30 amIn Headlines, NewsComments
By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor
Just as the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against
Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay, Thursday took a swipe at two agencies of
the administration for still engaging in untidy deals, President
Mohammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight has taken more knocks, it was
revealed yesterday.
While the Federal Govern-ment has adopted and placed incentives for
whistle blowing as a means of fighting corruption in the country, top
government officials have slapped the government policy by terminating
the career of an assistant director, who raised the alarm that the sum
of $229,000 and N800,000 had been diverted by key officials in the
Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa, an agency under the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The whistle blower, Mr. Ntia Thompson, an assistant director with the
Directorate for Technical Cooperation in Africa, who blew the lid in the
fraud that embarrassed the key masterminds, was initially suspended
from work on December 19, 2016 and was finally dismissed from service on
February 7, 2017.
Whistle-blowers
According to a public notice, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,
KHADIJA BUKAR ABBA IBRAHIM, who supervises the DTCA, approved the
compulsory retirement of Ntia from work with immediate effect.
Although it was not clear as at last night if the letter had been served
on the sacked director, a copy of the notice of his dismissal had been
posted on the DTCA public notice board.
The sack letter signed by Sanda S. Isah, Head of Administration
Department in DTCA and addressed to all staff, said, “ I am directed to
inform you that following the recommendations of the Senior Staff
Appointment Promotion and Disciplinary Committee on Acts of Serious
Misconduct against Mr. Ntia U. Thompson, the Honourable Minister of
State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman Presidential
Inter-Ministerial Committee on the DTCA, has approved the Compulsory
Retirement of Mr. Ntia U. Thompson from the services of the DTCA with
effect from 7th February 2017.
“In view of the above, Mr. Ntia U Thompson ceased to be a staff of the
DTCA with effect from 7th February 2017.
“All members of staff and the general public are hereby advised to take
note”.
The letter was signed and placed on the public notice of the DTCA on
Friday with a handwritten instruction ‘Please Read’.
However, competent staff within the agency, who believe that the money
in question was actually diverted wonder why both the police and the
anti-graft agency whose attention was drawn to the fraud, turned a blind
eye to the inimical act and allowed the suspects to go scot-free and
boldly unleash their fangs on the victim.
Competent senior officials in the DTCA provided documents to allege some
of the 14-member panel raised by the government to probe the
allegations of breaching service rules levelled against the
whistleblower could have been compromised.
The officials provided a list of 11 new senior staff hurriedly employed
by the leadership of the DTCA without advertisement or declaration of
vacancies by the directorate in order to silence the panellists and get
them to ease out the whistleblower from the establishment.
The document shows that the 11 ‘new staff’ were all employed as either
Administrative Officer or Accounts Officer on the same date of December
30, 2016, just a day to the end of the year.
The officials confirmed that the new employees are either direct
children or relatives of the panel members who were supposed to
interview Mr. Thompson and write a report based on the civil service
regulations and decide on whether he should be commended for the act of
patriotism which he showed by reporting the diversion of the money in
question.
One of the officials in the DTCA said, “If the government wants to know
the truth about the identities of the 11 new staff and their
relationship with the members of the panel that recommended the
dismissal of Mr. Thompson, it should ask for the names of the new
workers, their state of origin and their parents and see if they are
related to the panellists.
“We have all the names and we can give them to the government any time
they are ready to do proper investigation to know if the right thing was
done and whether a minister and other top officials benefitted from the
diverted cash or not,” one of the aggrieved workers at DTCA said.
It was not clear whether the sack of the staff would be approved by the
Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, which has not
been informed of the ugly development.
Whistle blowing a new concept introduced by the present administration
to horn in graft, has reportedly led to the recovery of billions of
Naira so far but it is not clear why many top government officials are
frontally opposed to it.
It will he recalled that Ntia, as assistant director in charge of
Servicom Unit at the DTCA had written a petition to the EFCC last
December drawing attention to the surreptitious withdrawal of the sum of
$229,000 and another N800,000 from the agency’s account purportedly for
the purpose of celebrating the the tenth anniversary of the Nigerian
Technical Cooperation Fund (NTCF) which was allocated $36,852.00, and
monitoring of various projects executed from the Trust Fund across
Africa.
However, when Ntia got wind of the diversion of the fund, he immediately
reported the ugly development to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission asking it to investigate the fraud .
Findings showed that although the EFCC waded into the matter and
compelled the affected officials to refund the sum of N800,000, no
further action was taken against the officials to refund the $229,000
which they had already taken.
But a few days after the EFCC had begun investigation into the scam, the
whistle blower was summoned by the DTCA and queried on why he leaked
official documents to the anti-graft agency and the media thereby
exposing the agency to embarrassment.
Arising from the police report, the DTCA on December 19, 2016 formally
suspended Mr. Thompson from work and asked him to surrender all property
in his disposal to the agency with immediate effect. The suspension
letter with ref. No. DTCA/P.082 Vol 1 was entitled, “Letter of
suspension from duty” and signed by Sanda Isah, Head, Department of
Administration/Secretary SSAPDC.
The letter said, “You will recall that you indulged in a series of acts
of serious misconduct bordering on “violation of official oath of
secrecy”, “absence from duty without leave” and “disobeying lawful
instructions from superiors”. “Even though these acts were established
to be heinous violation of the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules
030402 (e, f, I, n, t, and w), management considered and meted on you
the compassionate penalties of “letter of reprimand, letter of serious
warning, and a query for abandoning official duties in defiance of
lawful instructions from superiors, respectively.
Yet, these infractions did not abate. “It will also be recalled that on
the 14th of July 2016, you wrote a petition to the Inspector General of
Police in which you alleged threat to your life and that of your family
members by the Acting Director-General, Mr. Mohammed Kachallah and
Mallam Garba Alhaji Mohammed, Head of Programme Management of DTCA.
“In view of the weighty nature of this allegation, the police carried
out a thorough inquest into the matter and turned in the final report.
The report exonerated the two officers mentioned in the allegation of
criminal intimidation thereby establishing that you made “false claims
against government officials”.
“Against the backdrop of these serious infractions, the
Inter-Ministerial meeting of the Senior Staff Appointment, Promotion and
Disciplinary Committee met and looked into these issues in line with
the provisions of the PSR. The committee recommended for your suspension
from office pending the outcome of a final report of a sub-committee
set up on the matter.
“In view of the above, you are hereby suspended from office immediately
in line with the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules 030205 and
030406 of the PSR. You are therefore directed to hand over all official
documents/properties in your possession to the most senior officer in
the unit.”
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/03/ministry-fires-whistle-blower-exposed-229000-fraud/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/03/ministry-fires-whistle-blower-exposed-229000-fraud/

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