NUJ,RATTAWU in Radio Bayelsa accuse General Manager of double standards

 NUJ,RATTAWU in Radio Bayelsa accuse General Manager of double standards

The Radio Bayelsa chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ) and Radio Television and Theatre Arts Workers Unions (RATTAWU) have accused the General Manager of the station Mr John Idumange of double standards.

In a statement, signed by Tonye Yemoleigha and Puis Otiti, Chairmen of NUJ and RATTAWU respectively the unions urged Idumange to immediately
withdraw the employment letters recently issued some persons in the station.

They said that there was no justification for employment when the General Manager who was appointed on December 6, 2016 had lamented that the station was over staffed and redeployed competent staff from the FM station.

They said Idumange cannot be employing anyone after he recently
orchestrated the redeployment of some of the finest hands in the
broadcast outfit claiming the organization is overstaffed.

 

They noted that despite availability of funds the 350KVA generator acquired for smooth operations has remained unserviceable since December 2016.

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 “Another worrisome dimension to us as unions is the redeployment of
eight out of ten plant engineers from the station to other parastatals, leaving only two to man the plant.

“This means they will not run shift nor observe off days in an environment where radiation is very high  practically ‘killing’ workers daily.

“Idumange is running the place aground, not repositioning it because he does not understand how the media industry operates and lacks requisite managerial competence and dexterity to head a civil service organization”.the unions stated.

The Unions, the statement further said are not opposed to staff
redeployment, but insisted that the unions should also be part of the
process to ensure the best of hands are not sacrificed on the altar of
nepotism, sentiment or witch-hunt.

“We are also aware of the alleged over N5 million naira payroll fraud
which Idumange claims to have uncovered and has referred to the Police
for investigation.

“Ordinarily, in line with established procedures, an Investigative Panel should have been instituted to look into the matter and come up with a report with which management would act as appropriate.

“All these are expressly spelt out in the Public Service Rules; however, we are requesting for a copy of the police report on this after their investigation.

“We have asked management to properly discipline everyone involved in
an established case of running salary of a staff who resigned with effect from August 2016<” the joint statement said



The unions said that they worried that a staff who was offered an
appointment by the State Board of Internal Revenue and released on May
17, 2016  is being made head of a department and receiving double salary.

“We are calling on the Bayelsa State House of Assembly to, as part of
its oversight function, invite both Idumange and the Unions’ leaderships with a view to looking into the issues.

“We re-iterate our earlier plea to Governor Henry Seriake Dickson to sack John Idumange as General Manager of Radio Bayelsa in order to save it
from total collapse”.the unions stated.

Reacting to the development, Idumange dismissed the allegations leveled against him saying that the unions were being used to sabotage his efforts at repositioning the station which was in a deplorable state before his appointment.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday that there was no going back on his reform efforts as they received the blessing of the supervising Bayelsa Ministry of Information.

“This small radio station has 346 workers; employment and job placement have never followed due process, we are currently reorganizing the place and they are resisting our efforts.

“Those ghost workers must be fished out and the payroll cleaned up.

“The wage bill of the station is N35 million monthly and it is not sustainable and my predecessor incurred a debt of N40 million.

“The unions are being instigated by the Heads of Department affected in the illegal recruitment, and those who came into that place through the back door.

“These include a situation where a family – father, mother and three children – are working in the station; it is unbelievable, but true,” Idumange said.