Sen. Ademola Adeleke, governor of Osun State, has imposed an immediate suspension on the leaders of the State Health Insurance Agency and the State Primary Health Care Development Board due to alleged corrupt behavior.
Olawale Rasheed, the governor’s media aide, published a statement in which he issued the order.
According to the statement, the two agency heads were suspended as a result of the interim report of the Committee on Contracts and MoU, which was presided over by Hon. Niyi Owolade accused them of grossly abusing their positions, mismanaging public resources, and repeatedly breaking agency and law.
In response to the reports, Governor Adeleke directed Dr. Adebukola Olujide, the head of the Primary Health Care Development Board, and Dr. Niyi Oginni, the executive secretary of the Osun Health Insurance Agency (OHIS), to proceed with an immediate indefinite suspension.
The governor further ordered the Public Procurement Agency and other pertinent government agencies to immediately begin the process of recouping all unpaid tender fees for contracts, JVAs, MOUs, and other agreements to which the state government is a party that was awarded in the previous four years.
Adeleke further disclosed that the Public Procurement Agency (Due Process Office) would be the subject of a comprehensive inquiry to ascertain the extent of its guilt in the non-remittance of tender fees to the state treasury and contract manipulation over the previous four years.
In its recommendation, the committee had exposed the unethical behavior of the suspended heads of the OSHIA and the Primary Health Care Board, which had taken the form of contract awards made without following the proper procedures, the non-remittance of the actual tender fee received from contractors, contracts that were not valued for money, such as those for PHCs, and the purposeful splitting of contracts.
The committee also learned that the suspended OHIS boss used bulk-passing and blame-trading to conceal the fact that he awarded contracts worth several million Naira to his biological daughter and his private hospital within the organization he is in charge of. In contrast, the acting career head for primary health care lied under oath when she claimed not to be aware of any contracts for infrastructure or supplies in PHCs.
