Ayade former Aides Bicker Over Payroll Scam In Cross River
By Victor UDU
The war of words between the former Auditor General, John Odey, immediate past Head of Service, Timothy Ogbang Akwaji, Former Accountant General, Joseph Adie and suspended Civil Service Commission Chairman, Uko Inaku may have reached a crescendo but seems not to have attracted the expected attention from the Cross River state government.
Question is why the silence from government quarters, could it be a sign of culpability or just the indifference that has always been associated with the observation of table manners: when eating don't talk.
However, the attitude has not stopped the enormous criticisms that have trailed the despicable act of corruption especially that the Otu led administration has to painfully cough out millions of tax payers money to tackle the hydra headed fraud that has been a severe headache not only to this government but successive administrations.
As if an act of God, the key players in the saga told their stories to the 'people's court' and have allowed the public to judge for themselves whether they have sinned against the state or not.
The show of shame, administrative recklessness and flagrant abuse of office has been unabated and has given wagging tongues enough work to do.
Interview with the premier radio station in Calabar, the Hit FM by the renown and retired State Auditor General, John Odey blew the first lid open and as a whistle blower Odey presented what he knows about the matter in question which has been Otu's nightmares and Cross River deepest wound.
Former Auditor General, John Odey's allegations against immediate past Head of Service, Timothy Ogbang Akwaji, Former Accountant General,Joe Adie, and suspended Chairman of the State Civil Service Commission, Uko Inaku, acknowledged the trio as kingpins at the foundation of the corrupt practices that have bedeviled the state payroll and have gotten everybody perplexed.
Odey has alleged that the trio have enriched themselves stupendously with funds emanating from the despicable fraud orchestrated by them.
Odey maintained that the salary package of the Auditor General and that of his staff are in line with Provisions of the Cross River state Audit Law 2021 and was approved by the then governor, Senator (Prof) Ben Ayade.
Further allegations from Odey states that Ben Ayade engaged the services of a Consultant, SEEAMA Consult, who provided the platform while the Head of Service, Timothy Ogbang Akwaji sent monthly updates to Auditor General and Accountant General who made all the payments.
Odey alleged that: "At some point while reviewing the payroll I discovered that the payroll consultant was stealing money."
On Joseph Okem's matter, he alleged that Okem was promoted from level 08 to level 16 as Director of Tax, by the then Chairman Civil Service Commission, Uko Inaku, adding "I directed that he be removed from the payroll and that his promotion and transfer be reversed.
"His salary was stopped until his promotion and transfer was reversed by Uko Inaku before he was reinstated. Ayade didn't give any approval on the matter as claimed.
Uko will go to prison if we subject the matter to scrutiny".
Explaining further,he said: "The suspended chairman of the Civil Service Commission was alleged to be at the center of the bloated payroll. The more than 3000 illegal employments led to a meeting in his office with the then Head of Service where Odey was pressured to clear the names for which he is said to have refused.
"Regrettable as soon as I was removed they inserted the names into the payroll. He gave more than 500 Acting Directors appointment with full financial benefits, lifting people from grade level 13 to 16, Okem was one person Uko promoted from grade level 08 to level 16( Director of Tax) from college of Education, Akamkpa, Odey has alleged.
"Speaking on Ogbang Akwaji, he said: "The alleged acceptance of the former Head of Service to have refunded the money that I referred to in my interview is blatant lie.
They shared the money among themselves before my directives just like the claim by the former Accountant General is false also.
Documents presented by the trio to the radio are all fake because there's no means to verify them.
"They have deceived the presenter as payslips can be printed in computer business centers.
The actual verification is to confirm if my wife's name is in the Cross River payroll database as a Civil servant from June 2023 or had ever been in the payroll as a Civil servant, " Odey revealed.
Odey further accused the former accountant General, Joe Adie, of failing to answer to some allegations with regard to N3b loan purportedly secured by CRS Gov't in 2016 for the ministry of social housing to build affordable.
On discovery that there were hidden charges, Gov. Ben Ayade directed that it be turned down but Adie didn't. Besides, under Adie, in 2018, an additional unsolicited loan of N2bn was credited to that same account and Ayade accused Fidelity Bank of illegally deducting interest on loan the state government didn't utilise.
Worried by the development, he stated, Ayade engaged consulting firms, Bestwort Consulting and Lija Agro were said to have been engaged to ascertain how much was illegally taken from the state account.While Bestwort submitted N1.8bn, Lija revealed N875m. Adie allegedly hastily closed the account via letter CRS/AG/OC/4/2019 dated June 29,2022 and was consequently queried by the Auditor General in a letter dated September 12,2022, questioning why Adie closed government account and got only N41,500,000 refunded to the state.
On Agbang Akwaji, he alleged that in August 2020 the former HOS appeared before the state Auditor General and his directors in an audit exit meeting following alleged attempt to embezzle N50m from the ministry of biodiversity, CRS Forestry Commission and was directed to pay back the money to the state revenue account within 48 hrs and show evidence to Auditor General.
Also the immediate past HOS was alleged to have midwife and coordinated the applications for employment approved by Gov Ayade which emanated from Engineer Akeke, Permanent Secretary, Chief Eugene Akie in charge of INFRACROSS and in which the Auditor General stated that the list was elongated to include more names after the governor's approval.
Akwaji was requested to show evidence that the governor signed and authenticated the attachment to his approval.
Why are there still ghost workers even after all the funds given by Ayade for personal audit. On payroll, Odey further revealed that May 2023 payroll that Governor Ayade used in making last payment was fake as it was allegedly manipulated by the trio after purportedly adding the illegal employees to confuse administration. He disclosed that the correct total number of civil servants and pensioners shouldn't be above 19,000 as against the over 50, 000 being paraded now.
He said: "The original payroll of 2023 as downloaded from the Internet cloud should be matched with the payroll of June 2023 so as to filter all the names that came in from when His Excellency Governor Otu took over the payment of salaries.
"Accusations, Counter Accusation The trio of Akwaji, Adie, and Inaku denied all the allegations levied against them by Odey and called for a thorough probe of former Auditor General, John Odey accusing him of serious financial infractions by usurping functions of the Head of Service, Timothy Ogbang Akwaji and Accountant General, Joseph Adie adding them to his as Special Adviser, Payroll.
They accused Odey of using his privilege position to generate names into the payroll as one who screens and pays.
He was accused of receiving a monthly salaries of over N1m making him the highest payed civil servant in the state and employed his wife through the back door and many others without the knowledge of the then HOS.
They aslo accused Odey of deliberately handing over a controversial payroll to Governor Bassey Otu. Reacting to the allegations against him, the suspended Chairman, Civil Service Commission, Uko Inaku, said Odey's grudge against him is that he foiled his attempt to manipulate his age to serve until 2028 after he has served his mandatory 35 years .
Inaku revealed that by the civil service rules an official is due for retirement after 35 years in service or if he attains 60years but Odey attempted to falsified that to allow him serve till 2028, "when I turned that down, he became offended".
According to Inaku, "most of the ghost workers on the payroll were generated by Odey which he leverage on to bloat the state wage bill to line his pocket. He added that odey was alleged to have included his wife in the payroll and claimed to have recovered 8bn and collected 20percent from the illegality and has allegedly built for himself the biggest personal house in Calabar with a lift and helipad.
"On his part, the former Head of Service, Timothy Ogbang Akwaji, accused Odey of usurping his duties as Head of Service and that of the Accountant General collaborating what Uko has alleged that " Odey was senior Special Adviser on payroll and made himself the paying Officer and was also the Chairman Internal Revenue Service,IRS.
He further said: "Odey made himself the highest payed civil servant in the state with a monthly salary of over N1m. When we complained about compromise in the internal control mechanism by Odey alone holding the position of SSA, Payroll, Auditor General and Chairman IRS, Ayade seeing the implications appointed, Chief Henry Onwe as Senior Special Adviser on Payroll but Odey did not allow Onwe function till Ayades' tenure elapsed giving him opportunity to insert names to the payroll.
Chief Onwe is here in Calabar you can confirm from him. "Out of the 20,000 he put on the payroll only 15, 000 showed up for verification in the ongoing staff audit in the state which clearly reveals the level of manipulation Odey was orchestrating while in Office".
Some stakeholders who spoke to THE BEAGLE NEWS condemned the act, describing it as unpatriotic and a betrayal of public trust and called for severe sanctions on culprits to serve as deterrent to others.
