•Union gives agency ultimatum on arrears
•Activists caution Buhari on ‘petitions’
Director-General of National Agency for Food Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Dr. Paul Orhii yesterday denied allegations made against him by the agency’s former Finance Director, Mr. Ademola Mogbojuri.
Orhii, who spoke to reporters in Abuja on issues affecting NAFDAC, said the allegations credited to the former director of Finance were false.
He claimed that the ex-director of Finance was removed because of incompetence and some sharp practices.
He insisted that he would “rather leave this agency than to allow such impunity to continue”.
Mogbojuri had accused Orhii of financial recklessness, saying he had evidence of inappropriate financial transactions involving the director-general.
He also alleged that Orhii had been spending money generated by the organisation to the tune of N9 billion yearly on phoney contracts to some of his cronies and business associates at the expense of the welfare of workers.
“Before he joined the agency in 2009, the annual total revenue of NAFDAC was about N2.5 billion and he met around N600 million in the account. Now, the total internally generated revenue is about N9 billion and the agency owes about N5 billion in debts,” he alleged.
But Orhii did not deny the fact that despite being a revenue generating agency, NAFDAC was indebted to the tune of N5 billion.
He noted that the law establishing the agency allowed it to generate funds and spend them.
Orhii said the law had been assisting the agency in carrying out its programmes and projects.
He said the removal of the ex-director of Finance was not to cover up, but to ensure that the agency functions properly unhindered.
On why he transferred the director, Orhii said as the chief executive, he could not just watch workers and contractors complaining about the attitude of the man without doing anything.
He said: “As chief executive, workers run to you that they are being owed and you find out that those who were paid had to bribe to get their pay. If you are the chief executive, would you just sit down and watch?
“Also, some contractors were not paid, do you want me to sit down here without doing anything.”
On the issue of the agency’s indebtedness to the tune of N5 billion, Orhii said: “For me, I would rather collect a loan from the banks to execute my projects. If I know that equipment in the laboratory has broken down, when I know that is where my money is coming from. So, when you refuse to collect a loan when the equipment is broken down, how do you generate revenue to run the agency?”
He maintained that it was through prudence that the agency owed N5 billion.
He said: “When compared with its United States (U.S.) counterpart, it is by prudent management that we are owing N5 billion. If you compare our budget with that of U.S. agency, we should be spending close to N400 billion a year. And as I said, the law allows us to generate and spend ‘user fees’.”
The money spent, he said, “is not money we should pay into the Federation Accounts”.
On the allegation that the agency had not been remitting money in the past one and half years, Orhii said it was the responsibility of the former director of Finance to pay workers and contractors.
But he said Mogbojuri was not doing that.
Members of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN, NAFDAC chapter, have given a week ultimatum to the management to pay outstanding allowances owned the workers, otherwise the union would embark on another strike.
The union, led by its chairman, Ibrahim Attah yesterday at a news briefing shortly after its congress at the agency’s Isolo Operational office, lamented that the outstanding arrears that led to the last year strike were not settled by the management despite available resources.
Attah argued that with the latest revelation that the organisation was generating about N9 billion annually, it had no cause to owe workers.
He said it was unfortunate that all along the management had been economical with the truth that the agency was broke.
A coalition of 14 civil societies has urged Buhari to be cautious of fake petitions.
The civil societies under the aegis of African Arise for Change Network said they decided to warn the President because some “fifth columnists are already positioning to truncate the gains of change”.
Speaking on behalf of the coalition yesterday in Abuja, its Secretary General Mr. Samson Bello revealed that the target of the protest was the director general of NAFDAC.
The coalition called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), NAFDAC and the citizens to disregard the distractions constituted by the protesting groups as well as their sponsored petitions.
