The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has given his consent for the immediate suspension of Dr Niyi Oginni, Executive Secretary of the Osun Health Insurance Agency (OHIS), and Dr Adebukola Olujide, Head of the Primary Healthcare Development Board in the State.
In addition, Governor Adeleke has mandated that the Public Procurement Agency and other pertinent government bodies immediately begin the procedure to reclaim any outstanding tender fees on contract awards, JVAs, and MoUs to which the State government has been a party during the last four years.
The agency heads were suspended as a result of a preliminary report by the Committee on Contracts and MoU, which is directed by Niyi Owolade.
The two people are accused of several instances of abuse of authority, misappropriation of public funds, and recurrent breaches of agency and public service norms and rules, according to a statement by the governor's spokesperson Rasheed Olawale.
The governor also announced a thorough investigation into the Public Procurement Agency (the Due Process Office) to determine its level of responsibility for the non-remittal of tender fees to the State treasury and the manipulation of contracts over the previous four years in a statement announcing the immediate implementation of all of his orders.
“The Committee, in its recommendation, had unearthed the unethical practises of the suspended heads of the OSHIA and the Primary Health Care Board as manifested in contract awards without due process, non-remittance of the actual tender fee collected from contractors, contracts without value for money, like the PHCs and deliberate splitting of contracts.
“The Committee further found out that the suspended OHIS boss gave contracts to the tune of several millions of Naira to his own biological daughter and his own private Hospital in the Agency he is heading, while the Acting Career Head in the Primary Health Care lied on oath when she falsely denied knowledge of all contracts of infrastructures and supplies in the PHCs, resorting to bulk-passing and blame trading.”
Both Dr Oginni, Executive Secretary of the Osun Health Insurance Scheme, and Dr Adebukola Olujide, Executive Secretary of the Osun State Primary Healthcare Development Board, have been recommended for suspension by the Committee on Contracts and MoU for gross abuse of office and failure to remit contract tenders fees, as reported by Prime 9ja Online.
According to the committee’s findings, the two gave preferential treatment to friends and family members when doling out contracts.