……. Ag. Secretary demoted to Director (Legal Services) without justification.
The CCB was established in 1979 to maintain a high standard of morality in the conduct of government business and to ensure that the actions and behaviour of public officers conform to the highest standards if public morality and accountability.
But since the appointment of Sam Saba as Chairman of Code of Conduct Bureau Board, impunity has been the order of the day.
Since its inauguration in April 2010, The Board of the Code of Conduct Bureau came without any role definition between it and the management of the CCB. In the Standard Operational Manual designed and approved by them, they place themselves as the “Executive Heads of Departments while Directors are to assist them”. Having an upper hand, the Board who called themselves “Federal Commissioners” (whereas, this is not provided for anywhere in the enabling Laws) took control of whatever assignment it liked including operational activities. For instance they engaged directly in verification of assets, suspects’ interrogation, receiving assets declaration forms directly, budget preparation, posting of staff, allocation of schedules to officers, liaison between the office and Budget office, among others. These duties, ordinary are operational activities meant for civil servants.
Instructions passed directly from the Chairman to Board members, in all cases, bypassing the Secretary CCB – who ordinarily should be the Accounting Officer. Board members minute files and engage on day-to-day running in contravention to the Guides to Administrative Procedures in the Federal Public Service. Board members bypass Directors and give instructions to Directors’ subordinates. Board members interfere with the duties of Director of Finance & Accounts and want to have knowledge of expenditure on voucher to voucher bases. No one of them is an accountant but yet do not allow the professional accountants to carry out their day to day duties. This had led to unending controversies on financial issues and brought chaos into the organization.
The Board of the Bureau has always resisted having any meetings with Directors. They have held meetings upon meetings with no trickle down effects to Directors. They engage in both local and foreign training of their members to the exclusion of Directors and undertake out-of-station travelling. The Board members resort to bullying approach to carry their plans through.
As a result of their over bearing and uncontrollable view of their authority they stop at nothing to bring down their perceived non-collaborators among the civil servants. They used all manner of tactics which included setting a Board Committee on the Accounts Reconciliation to probe into Director (Legal Services) Omoyola Abel Kolade who formerly served as Director of Finance and Accounts, a post which he has left since 1st December, 2014.
This self-probe was very unnecessary because there are checks in place from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Auditor General of the Federation and the Budget Office. The Bureau is also on GIFMIS site. This act is not only malicious but also unfortunate and high handed since they did not find fault against Omoyola Abel Kolade until he left the post for seven months.
The Board had assumed headship of zones independent of the central administration of CCB. Any correspondence coming from State Offices pass through the Board member representing the zone and such member is at liberty to suppress the correspondence. Applications for leave, change of name, posting, study, complaints, etc, are passed through the zonal Board members.
This is an indirect way of severing the administration of the State Offices from that of the Headquarters and this explains why things have gone wrong since the inception of the Board in 2010. The Board members have dedicated letterheads which are used in correspondence with State Governments without the Chairman/Secretary/Director in the Headquarters being aware of such correspondences.
Directors and officers are no longer free to travel to carry out official assignment in State Offices without clearance from the Board members in charge. Verifications are carried out by the Board members without reports. Board members always take tour of States under them at will and romance with Governors and top officials of State Governments. The Board itself is not capable of placing checks on the activities of the fellow members. This had bred high handedness in dealing with staff by the Board members.
Sometimes in February 2015, Dr. Ademola Adebo, a Board member, wrote a petition to EFCC complaining about some wrong doings in the CCB. His main grievance was that the Chairman assumed a position as Accounting Officer and that made him a head in the chain of command in the Bureau. His petition targeted the Chairman and all that were loyal to him. This petition saw virtually all the Board members, Ag. Secretary, Director of Finance and Accounts, Director of Human Resources, Deputy Director Procurement and some subordinate officers of these Departments and the Chairman himself, facing EFCC interrogation. This was a huge embarrassment to the Bureau.
The question is; why should a sitting Board member take his organization to the EFCC? Are there no internal mechanisms within the Board to resolve differences? Why could the Board member not be sanctioned after this embarrassment? This clearly shows that the Board is not capable of imposing any sanctions on any of its erring members and therefore lacks the discipline and moral latitude to continue as an effective Board.
Recently, Swift Reporters came across a petition written to the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Council on Corruption by Omoyola Abel Kolade, Director, Legal Department of the CCB seeking for justice over an in illegal demotion and prejudicial activities of the Board of Code of Conduct Bureau.
In the petition, Omoyola Abel Kolade was promoted as Ag. Secretary CCB on 1st December, 2014 and acted on that post successfully until 7th July, 2015 when he was demoted and posted as Director to head the Legal Department and the Board appointed his subordinate as Acting Secretary, CCB.. Before the demotion order, no queries were issued to Mr. Omoyola, neither was he found guilty of any offence. That act did not conform to any known norms, conventions and procedures in the public service.
The main grouse was that one of the Board members accused Mr. Omoyola of campaigning for APC when he indicated his intention to obtain casual leave to go to his state for April 2015 elections. They were not comfortable with Mr. Omoyola because all of them are members of PDP who did not make a hiding of their political inclinations. That is why as soon as President Buhari was inaugurated on 29th May 2015, the Board demoted Mr. Omoyola to Director’s position on 7th July, 2015 after over seven months at the post without any queries nor warnings.
Mr. Omoyola is appealing to Presidential Advisory Council on Corruption to use their good offices to look into his case on demotion and restore him back to his post as Secretary, CCB before his retirement in August, 2016; he also requested the Council to look into the issue of delineation of the duties of the Board and the management to help effective service delivery in the Bureau and avoid further confusion that had existed since 2010.
Finally, he urged the Council to look the tenure issue and be resolved in the interest of equity and over governance on the part of the Board of the Bureau.
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