LAUTECH: We Got Approval for 302 Recruitment, We employed 767 Workers-Governing Council Chairman

More facts have emerged on the recruitment scam rocking the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital, Osogbo.

Chairman of the Governing Council of the hospital, Professor Oluwole Atoyebi has revealed that there was indeed illegal recruitment and arbitrary promotion of workers of the hospital.

Atoyebi who appeared before the lawmakers of the Osun state House of Assembly on Tuesday stated that the management of the hospital got approval of the state government to recruit only 302 workers in 2012.

Against the approval of the state government, the LAUTECH hospital went ahead to recruit 767 workers, majority of whom hold BSC, HND, OND and NCE, Atoyebi revealed.

The chairman added that in 2013, the state government also approved recruitment of less than 100 people, but the hospital employed 157 and 65 others in 2014.

He disclosed that the salary wage bill of the hospital, which was generating N30 million, was N100 million.

Atoyebi maintained that the hospital salary wage bill increased drastically due to the number of workers employed with higher qualifications and arbitrary promotion.

According to him, some of the newly employed workers with higher qualifications were promoted without due process and procedures of staff upgrading.

He stated that they were upgraded to higher levels less than a year after employment.

Atoyebi refuted the remour that the state government has sacked some of the LAUTECH hospital workers, saying that no worker has been sacked in the hospital.

Stating that the bone of contention was the illegal recruitment and arbitrary promotion of workers, Atoyebi said that the state government was not in anyway winch-hunting the staff of the hospital.

In his remarks, the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Honourable Najeem Salam, said that the House would look into the matter and make necessary recommendations.

Salam disclosed that there would be a meeting between the LAUTECH hospital Board members and the state lawmaker next week Tuesday.

It would be recalled that the state government had announced that it uncovered illegal recruitment of about 678 members of staff through a forensic audit of staff in the hospital.

The state government said that there were proofs to show that some administrative officers, with Bachelor’s Degrees and Higher National Diploma certificates, “were recruited as security and ward assistants on Grade Level 02, only to be promoted to Level 07 within three months of their unapproved appointment.”

The statement said it was also discovered that over 500 members of staff that are executive and assistant executive officers more than triple the number of available doctors and consultants.

CityMirrorNews had reported that majority of workers involved in the recruitment scam and arbitrary promotions are wives and relatives of members of the Osun state House of Assembly and other politicians in the state.