Date Published: 04/09/10

Oni reads riot acts to fraudulent public servants

Goodluck Jonathan

Ekiti State Governor, Engr. Segun Oni has said that corrupt public servants will henceforth be shown the way out of the State Public Service, adding that the government was poised to tackle the increasing wave of corruption in the public service through institutionalisation of transparency, accountability, credibility and genuine patriotism in government.

Governor Oni, while inaugurating the State Committee on Identity Management and Electronic Payment Solution in his office today, said the government will not tolerate any act of corruption, indolence and incompetence among public servants in the State.

Governor Oni said the electronic payment solution was capable of achieving the State Government’s desire in terms of payroll management while also reducing losses through eradication of fraud.

He decried the spate of corruption in the State Public Service, adding that; “In the last couple of months, I have been worried at the level of fraud that I have seen. I receive text messages daily on fraudulent activities of our public servants and I am even more worried that no one has been brought to book.

“In spite that we have seen diversion of federal and state governments’ cheques to private accounts by fraudulent public servants and bank officials, I am yet to see any single person jailed and I am worried because people become more emboldened when they see those, who committed fraud being left alone to enjoy their loots.

“I know that we are not all bad as Ekiti people, but if we cannot deal with the few bad ones among us, we are not likely to achieve the Ekiti of our dream.  It is our dream to make Ekiti better and it is not in the interest of the State that a few people will just be cornering everything that should be used to better the lots of the people.

“We therefore need a strong Information Technology (IT) platform to combat this cankerworm that is threatening to destroy the fabric of our existence. The robust platform we are hoping will come into practice very quickly will prevent fraud in future.

“By the end of three months from today, everything should be in place. The system will be bio-metric driven and we expect that there will be people, who want would want to fight this system because it will prevent them from getting what they have been getting through fraudulent means. They are going to attempt to blackmail us, but we will remain resolute. In actual fact, we cannot be blackmailed because we have never cut corners with anyone.”

Governor Oni, who charged the committee to work assiduously to create a legacy for the future of the incoming generations through the sanitisation of government, disclosed that the system would eliminate wastages, ghost workers and enable automation of salary payments. Responding, Chairman of the Committee, who is also the State Commissioner for Finance, Prince Adetunji Adeniyi described the task before the committee as that which required a lot of commitment. He assured that the committee would put in their best to ensure that the project was successfully executed.