Workers of the Federal Ministry of Environment under the aegis of the workers union have threatened to shut down activities at the Ministry over the refusal of the Director of Procurement, Mrs. Nwoye Felicia, to vacate her office after her compulsory retirement.
The furious workers staged a peaceful protest at the Ministry’s premises last Friday and demanded audience with the Director. She refused to give in to the workers demand to address address, this further enraged the workers, who have vowed to stage another protest tomorrow the 15th of July,2024
They have threatened to disrupt working activities tomorrow if the director persist in her sit-tight attitude by not vacating her office.
The director has stayed put in office after her mandatory retirement from office earlier in the month.
The department of Procurement nominal roll, marked “Form B (2023), sighted by this medium, the Director was billed to have left office as Director of Procurement since the 9th of July, 2024, having attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 years.
A source at the Ministry informed this medium, that the Director’s action has created an administrative stand-still in the department and has left her deputy, who is supposed to take over from her redundant.
Information reaching us from inside sources reveal that the Director has instead of honourably retiring from office, has preoccupied herself with multiple requests to the Minister of Environment for extension of service, when she could as well handed over to her deputy to continue the work in the department as government service is a continuum.
Our investigation reveals that many workers in the Ministry are of the opinion that the Minister is in tacit support of the Director’s lawless impudence, as the Director’s requests for extension have been granted by the Minister on two occasions.
The workers are also calling for the transfer from the Ministry, of one Ngozi, a level 12 female officer in the procurement department, who has spent over 8 years in the Ministry and who has repeatedly “reversed” her transfer out of the Ministry, in clear violation of the civil service rules. According to a Federal Ministry of Environment Internal Memo titled: Posting Instructions” dated 27th March, 2014 with reference number: FMENV/PROC/HQ/61/ VOL1/82 which was sighted by this medium Ngozi was posted to the Procurement Department 9 years ago, in 2015.
She is reported to be a close ally and hatchet woman of the Director, who handles the Directors dirty deals. The level 12 officer is perceived to be well connected and powerful that she is believed to have been responsible for the prompt dispatch of some directors out of the Ministry who are not in her good books.
According to the ministry sources, the director has vowed to “exhaust” all the contracts in the Ministry and reap maximum benefits to the “bottom pot” before she leaves office.
Some workers who spoke to this medium, opined that the actions of the Director amounts to gross violation of the civil service rules and a slap on the zero tolerance of corruption policy of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present adminidtration.