There is a brewing crises at the National Centre For Women Development (NCWD) over the refusal of the Director of Procurement, Mr. Collins Akemu to hand over and resume at his new posting, the Federal Ministry of Education.
Akemu was posted to the Education Ministry via a memo from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) dated February 4th.
Despite the explicit instruction in the memo signed by the Director-General of the BPP, Mamman Ahmad, for Akemu and other listed Procurement officials to resume at their various new postings on or before Friday 12th February, the director has stayed-put at the NCWD weeks later with staff complaining about his continued stay.
Akemu’s refusal to leave the NCWD is creating administrative problems as another senior staff of the agency’s Procurement Department has been given a letter to resume as director of the department. A reliable source at the agency explained that with the letter given to the new head of Procurement, Muktar Usman, his predecessor should have immediately handed over as government is a continuum.
According to the source, Akemu has been playing a game of hide and seek with the new director of procurement, even as he has continued with issuing new letters of contract award, resulting in worried staff saying he is staying back to complete deals he started with contractors.
The memo from the BPP directing all 196 affected staff of the Bureau to immediately resume at their new postings, with a warning that refusal to ensure handover and take over before the announced deadline will be treated with the PSR Provision 030301, has fallen on deaf ears, as Akemu had not handed over as at Tuesday March 2nd. He was at his table at the NCWD all through Monday.
When called on Monday, Akemu claimed he resumed at the Education ministry on February 10th, but checks by this paper showed that he has been reporting at the NCWD up until Monday March 1st. This is even as he is yet to handover to Usman at Tuesday morning, just as he holds on the keys to his office and password for payment for contracts approved for payment.
This paper called the Director of Press at the Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Bem Goong to confirm if the NCWD director has resumed work as claimed, but his known number was unavailable as at press time.
