Immediate past Head of Service (HOS) Raymond O. Ucheoma, Esq has come under fire for abitrarilly stopping the salaries over 300 Imo Civil Servants while in office. The workers were said to have been drawn from across different Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) like, the Ministry of Information, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Power, Office of the Deputy Governor, Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Health.
Others are; Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of Health Insurance, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Chieftaincy Affairs, Ministry of Lands, Ministry of Women Affairs, Health Management Board, (HMB), Ministry of Works, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Petroleum, MBEPS, Ministry of Budget & Planning and Ministry of Finance.
Information has it that he arbitrarily sent the names to Government House for their salaries to be stopped in a bid to seek the face of the Governor, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma, for the purpose of extending the expiration of the date of his service and the elongation of his days in office as the Head Of Service(HOS).
Our source also revealed that Ucheoma wrote a letter to addressed to the Director General, Imo Data Center, Government House, Owerri, alleging that he made a grievous error in directing the stoppage of the over 300 workers.
He further, made the same claim in a letter he also wrote to the Accountant General of Imo State.
In his letter to the Director General of the Imo Data Center, on September 25,2024 with Reference Number; HSI/S.457/S.1/T/1/382, with the subject; PAYMENT OF STAFF WHOSE SALARIES WERE STOPPED BASED ON PRESENTATIONS MADE IN ERROR AND FOR REASONS ATTACHED HEREWITH”.
The letter read in part;
“Please find attached list of staff whose salaries were stopped in respective months indicated based on earlier errors, now they have favourable recommendations and in some cases recovered from Hospitals.
“Kindly cross-check and restore their salary payments based on recommendations for restoration of their salaries received from their MDAs.
” Be assured of my esteemed regards”, the letter personally signed by Barrister Ucheoma concluded.
A reliable source informed that all Ucheoma was doing were for his personal interest and agrandizement, just for him to be retained in office as the Head Of Service.
Further more, the letter he wrote to the Account General has its reference number as: HSI/S.457/S.I/T/1/377 dated September 2nd, 2024 and received on September 3rd 2024.
The salaries were stopped between February 2024 and July 2024. Efforts made so far by the affected staff had proved abortive as the office of the Data Center alleged that it was only the Governor that would direct to the restoration of their salaries.
A top civil servant who may not want his name in print further revealed that the affected workers have been trying their best to see to the restoration of their salaries, but all to no avail, alleging, that Ucheoma even wrote the letter asking for the restoration of the affected workers salaries, when it dawned on him that Governor Hope Uzodimma would not extend his stay in office or his retirement date by a minute.
“The immediate past Head of Service is selfish and most of his actions were uncalled for while in Office. Stopping the salaries of workers at that point in time till now without any cogent reason is a sign of witchhunt and wickedness.”source said.
Furthermore, the immediate past Head of Service, Barrister Raymond O. Ucheoma was accused of collecting over Three Hundred Thousand Naira (N300, 000) annually from each of the shop owners located inside the State Secretariat.
It was further alleged that Ucheoma diverted the funds into his personal pocket instead of directing them to pay into the Imo State Government’s Treasury Single Account( TSA).
Again, he was accused of practising favouritism and destruction of the Imo State Civil Service. Information has it that he never cared to persuade the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma to march his words with actions as Imo State Civil Servants still have backlogs of promotion arrears yet to be received.
However, it was learned, the civil servants have been promoted, just on papers without financial follow up. Even while he received the parliatives meant for the workers from the Imo state Government, Barrister Ucheoma was accused of diverting same without sharing them to the civil servants as expected.
Information further has it that the recently employed workers for the Ministry of Health have not received salaries since they were employed since last October 2023. They new employees were posted to different health facilities across the state even as their employment followed the civil service rules to the letter. The hospitals or establishments they newly employed workers were posted to were; General Hospital Awo Omamma, Oru East LGA, General Hospital Oguta, General Hospital Umuokanne Ohaji Egbema LGA, General Hospital Aboh Mbaise LGA among others.
Unfortunately, till date, according to an impeccable source, non of the over 500 workers, despite receiving their Letters of Appointments have not been paid till date and while Barrister Ucheoma was the Head Of Service. It was further alleged that he discouraged Governor Hope Uzodimma from paying them telling him that they were not employed again, that rather old staff were drafted to the various Health facilities.
Our source informed too, that, he allegedly shortchanged contractors handling projects inside the Secretariat just to fund the construction of his personal hotel located at the New Owerri, even as he was said to be the owner of a popular event centre along Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Judiciary High Court Headquarters Owerri.
However, a group, Imo Comrades Council (ICC) has petitioned the Commissioner of Police Imo State Command and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC)requesting them to arrest and prosecute Barrister Raymond O. Ucheoma over his activities while in Office as the Head Of Service, Imo State Civil Service.
They group alleged that he diverted funds meant for the Imo State Government to his personal use and saw to the promotion of junior workers above their senior ones and that his nefarious activities in office, according to ICC, caused chaos, acrimony, nepotism and disunity in many Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Imo State Civil Service among others.
In an interview with a Director of Administration & Finance(DAF) in one of the Ministries,She opined, “Salaries of Workers are not stopped unnecessarily when they are not facing any form of disciplinary action.
“Before you direct the stoppage of any workers salaries, his office must have issued the person a “Query” and if not responded at the given or stipulated time,then the worker would be given another query before salaries can be stopped”, the DAF stressed.
Such action of the immediate past Head of Service, Barrister Ucheoma contravened the civil and public services rules of engagement.
The Imo Comrades Council (ICC) appealed to the Governor, His Excellency, to urgently pay the workers, as according to them, ”they are going through hell in this economic hardship as a result of one man’s selfish v ambition.
