The Governing Council of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, (RUGIPO) Ondo state, has described as absolutely false a report by a member of staff of the institution that it owes the workers, saying it is the backlog of salary inherited from past administration in the state.
The Chairman of the governing Council, Prof. Olubunmi Omoniyi, who disclosed this during a press briefing in Akure, the state capital, said the Rotimi Akeredolu-led administration met salary backlog owed workers of the institution.
Omoniyi said the council met 13 months unpaid salary of the workers, but the council had to source for funds to offset three out of the 13 months owed, reducing the backlog to ten months.
She explained that all efforts to reposition the school, including the appointment of principal officers for the school were being thwarted by some forces working against the development of the school.
According to her, the council tried to introduce some innovations to raise the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the school in order to pay some of the outstanding salary as they have exhausted the subvention for this year (2023)
Omoniyi listed some of the innovations to include; implementation of automated fee payments, digital result uploads among many others designed to increase the IGR of the school to enhance the institution’s standards were blocked by some elements in the school.
She said the appointment had to be suspended following several petitions that were addressed to the council while members of the council were also alleged to have drawn N24 million for the screening of the appointment of substantive principal officers for RUGIPO.
She however, said all the process of appointing a substantive principal had been put on hold temporarily to enable the school’s council and the state government to address various issues confronting the institution, especially accumulated salaries arrears.
The RUGIPO governing Council chair said “Personally as I am talking with you, RUGIPO receives their salaries as at when due. When the Union met with me in November, I told them that I had been able to go round lobbying for 3 months salaries to be paid. I made them realised that the present government is not owing them.
“This salaries owed accumulated since 2014 under previous administration. There was a time they (previous management/governing council) also borrowed N8 Million to pay salary at the polytechnic, which other institutions in the state did not borrow from the bank. All these things have generated a lot of unrest in the institution.
“Other institutions when they get their subvention, augment with their IGR but for this very institution (RUGIPO), we don’t have IGR and the way of generating IGR is not forthcoming from any of them.
“At the meeting with members of the council, they asked how we are going to get 10-month salaries paid, I told them we would beg the government to pay because presently they have exhausted their subvention (for 2023).
“Instead of 12 months, they have gotten 14 months of subvention and we were informed that they cannot get additional ones. I said we would beg so that government can assist us to defray this debt and that is the situation on ground.
“To my dismay, I heard they went on rampage with NASU chanting my name and that I am sitting on their money. I don’t know how a Council Chairman will sit on salaries not to be paid. name
“As I am speaking with you, I don’t have any record of accounts of the institution or any member of my council don’t know any about their account records.
“Apart from our sitting allowance which had been budgeted for. We have never collected a dime from any quarter at the institution. All efforts to get the polytechnic to generate IGR are being frustrated (by the system.)
“The government have intervened and they asked us to put the interview on hold and we have done that. I think the matter should be put to rest for a while but still some are still going about trying to malign my name”
Speaking on the appointment of principal officers for the school, “When we came on board, we discovered that the tenure of principal officers will expire on October 9 2023.
“We swung into action and we put an advert which lasted for six weeks in (the Newspapers), during the process of our advertisement, we appointed acting principal officers.
“Our council chose some people to do the screening which was done and a total of N3.1m was approved by the Acting Rector for logistics for consultants from the Federal and State polytechnics (to carry out the appointment of substantive principal officer).
“To our dismay, we heard a lot of rumours that it was N24 million, some said N50m. We have records where the N3.1m was approved. How can we approve N24m or N50m for appointment process when the institution cannot even generate up to N5m
“When we wanted to commence the procedure, we heard that we should move from Owo and history had it that in 2019 when they wanted to appoint principal officers it was done in Akure.
“Before the scheduled date, I started receiving a lot of petitions from all over the country with fabricated and malicious stories against me and the council. We met again to discuss how we are going to conduct the principal officers’ interview exercise amidst several petitions and allegations flying around.
She however, said those who did not want the appointment of new principal officers are the ones sponsoring unrest at the polytechnic, lamenting that qualified scholars are now afraid to apply for the positions of principal officers due to attitude of some union leaders and forces within the system.
“I think if they want to go on rampage, they should inform me and dialogue to see what we can do about it if they have not been masterminded by some people who do not want the interview (of appointing new principal officers) to be held, so that we would not have substantive principal officers,” she said.
Also speaking, a member of the council, Hon. Olumuyiwa Asagunla, advocated the implementation of automated fee payments, digital result uploads, to enhance the institution’s standards.
He called for support for the council’s efforts to elevate the polytechnic into a 21st Century University within the next six years.
. TheWitness
