The Chairman, Delta State House of Assembly Commission, Mrs Josephine
Kachikwu, said 26 employees of the commission had been dismissed from
service due to certificate forgery.
Kachikwu said this in a statement signed by her and made available to
online media 247ureports.com in Asaba.
She said those affected were two management staff, 10 middle
management cadre staff, five technical officers, six senior admin
officers, and three junior staff, while cases of 22 others were
pending.
She said the dismissal was effected after a thorough verification and
re-verification exercise had been carried out by a team of experts.
“This was consequent upon the infighting by some employees over
seniority which resulted in protests that some of their colleagues
were presenting fake certificates so that they will be upgraded far
and above their equals.
“The commission engaged the services of a firm of external auditors to
carry out certificate verification.
“The firm has submitted its report and every case was subjected to
further re-verification to remove any possible human error and so far,
26 employees have been dismissed from the service of the commission
for parading fake certificates.”
The statement quoted Kachikwu as saying that the commission’s decision
to sack the staff would “go down in history as the most agonising
decision by the commission.”
It said since the inauguration of the commission with her appointment
as Chairman by Gov. Emmanuel Uduaghan in 2011, it had been carrying
out a policy of motivation of employees.
“This is to ensure an efficient and effective service delivery in the
legislature and eligible staff for promotion are subjected to a
refresher course and subsequent examination before being promoted.
“As an incentive, the commission pays a handsome outfit allowance to
all staff annually to enable them maintain corporate and dignifying
looks befitting of parliamentary staff,” the statement said.
