Some health workers owed salaries at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC) were paid through the backdoor, FIJ has learned.

A source at the hospital, who is also affected by the non-payment of salaries and does not want to be named, told FIJ that the payment was ongoing until September, when Prof John Okeniyi, the new Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, was appointed.

On December 20, FIJ published a report, detailing the experiences of clinical workers at OAUTHC, whose salaries have not been paid since they were employed.

These unpaid workers, who were employed between December 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, have resorted to begging and taking loans to survive their harsh realities.

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Days after the report was published, the source told FIJ that some of his colleagues were getting paid while he and others were left to struggle for survival.

FIJ had earlier reported that the workers’ salaries were not paid for two reasons. First, they were yet to be captured on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). Second, a federal ministry of health’s investigation revealed that management under Olumuyiwa Owojuyigbe, the immediate past acting chief medical director (CMD) of the hospital, exceeded the employment waiver from the ministry. Instead of employing 450 clinical staff, close to 2400 clinical and non-clinical staff were employed, FIJ learned.

According to the source, some of these unpaid workers devised means to be paid directly by the hospital instead of through the federal government’s IPPIS. Being captured on the IPPIS as a civil servant means the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) pays you directly. But these aforementioned workers, the source said, found a way to bypass this. Instead of being paid via the IPPIS, they registered on another payment platform called the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).

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FIJ is aware that this GIFMIS, which is also a federal government-owned payment platform, is meant for the hospital’s internally generated revenue.

In OAUTHC’s situation, the revenue the hospital generates is used to pay interns and contract workers through GIFMIS, while full-time staff get paid directly from the federal government via the IPPIS.

While explaining the situation to FIJ, the source said, “Since we started, we have been battling how to get captured on the IPPIS. We have only been getting assurances that we’ll be captured for payment. We have been working without pay, while some people are getting paid through the backdoor.

“There is a platform called GIFMIS. It is a platform for the hospital’s internally generated revenue. The revenue they generate is what they use to pay workers who are not permanent staff, such as interns and contract workers.”

According to the source, these workers who bypassed the normal process of payment for full-time staff “fixed themselves on that platform, even doctors”.

“Both clinical and non-clinical staff, some of them got money up to six months. Some got for seven and some for eight months. This was ongoing until September, when Professor John Okeniyi, the present chief medical director (CMD) of the hospital, stopped it,” the source said.

“They started getting paid about three months after they had started working, and there was no payment. When we escalated this to the hospital to know why this was so, the hospital felt that if until a set time we were not paid, others might be placed on the platform for payment.

“But between September and October, the present CMD decided to remove everyone from the platform, except those who were meant to be there. Someone who started in January got paid in March. And she was paid for the previous months together with her March salary then. They continued to pay her from that GIFMIS until around October, when the CMD stopped it.

“Many of them paid those in charge of accounts and salaries in the finance department. We felt that when the CMD ordered those people to be removed from GIFMIS, they would place the rightful people on the platform. We were still waiting for an update when we heard that they paid some doctors for three months each, about two weeks ago.

“They couldn’t have been paid via the IPPIS because we all are yet to be captured, but I suspect that it is still the GIFMIS. But the issue now is that some of these doctors who got paid are not even working. Some of them have absconded from work. They did not resign, but they are working in other places. Yet they are getting paid for the work they have not done.”

With respect to the government’s response to the unpaid salaries, the source mentioned that a meeting held with the CMD ended with another round of promises of payment.

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“The question is: is the government interested in our service or not? We are just hoping that we would be fought for and our rights won’t be trampled upon. We give the hospital physical manpower, some of us run 15 to 24 calls, but we are not appreciated,” the source added.

When contacted on Thursday, Patricia Deworitshe, the director of information at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, told FIJ that the ministry was not aware of the GIFMIS payment.

Deworitshe also said that those not captured by the lPPIS were employed irregularly. By “employed irregularly”, she referred to a press statement dated November 19, which she forwarded to FIJ as the ministry’s response to the “over-bloated employment saga”.

The full statement, “OAUTH IFE AND THE UNREST,” reads:

“The attention of the Federal Ministry of Health has been drawn to the unrest being witnessed in the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife leading to some reports in the media. It has become necessary for the Ministry to wade into the matter to set the record straight.

The unrest is attributed to the alleged job racketeering/ over employment saga in the establishment, under the former Chief Medical Director,(CMD) Dr. Owojuyigbe Olumuyiwa who employed over 1,973 staff as against the 450 vacancies waiver granted in the 2022 employment by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), which is flagrant abuse of extant rules and regulations.

The hospital conducted the exercise in 2 phases (230&220) after securing approval of the Federal Character Commission not to advertise the posts. During the first phase, the hospital recruited 600 instead of 230, and a total of 1,823 staff members were recruited in the second phase instead of 220.

At the end of the 2 phases, the hospital recruited 2,423 staff instead of 450. As such, 1,973 staff members were recruited in excess of the approved waiver.

In August 2023, an investigative panel was set up,led by Dr. Aderemi Azeez, from the Ministry, and the report of the panel states that the former Chief Medical Director, (CMD) Dr. Owojuyigbe Olumuyiwa, was embroiled in over-employment/ job racketeering in the establishment, without provision in the personnel budget for over 1,973 workers illegally employed.

The report further noted that the 450 workers waiver granted to the OAUTH was for the recruitment of clinical staff, but only 55 clinical staff were employed, while others were non clinical staff.

The outcome of the recruitment exercise also revealed that OAUTH has staff strength of 7279( out of which 3034 were clinical staff and 4245 were non- clinical staff, this translates to a non clinical staff ratio of approximately 1:1 instead of the recommended 3:1, that is 3 clinical to 1non – clinical).

It further stated that many recruited staff were without requisite academic and professional certificates as well as evidence of National Youth Service Corps Certificates.

Currently, Dr Owojuyigbe Olumuyiwa who was appointed in acting capacity in March 2023,has absconded from his duty post since July 2023, while his co- culprit Mr Balogun Tajudeen, who was the Acting Director Admin has been suspended for their involvement in the job racketing saga.”

Our reporter asked additional questions, including the health ministry’s plan regarding the irregularly employed workers, whether the 450 approved employees out of the recruited 2423 were captured on IPPIS, and the legal steps being taken against those involved in the job racketeering.

In response, she said she was currently on vacation but had forwarded the request to the department of hospital services.

FIJ could not reach Kemi Fasoto, the public relations officer at OAUTHC, for comments as her phone number was not reachable on Thursday.

The WhatsApp and text messages sent to her on Thursday had also not been responded to at press time.