…commends Makinde for prompt payment of subventions
The Executive Team of the two in-house Union (RATTAWU, BCOS Chapter and other Unions have debunked a rumor making rounds that BCOS Staff are set for showdown with the management of BCOS led by Prince Dotun Oyelade over alleged financial impropriety.
The unions reaction follows a sponsored misleading reports by some bloggers that the unions are set to petition Governor Seyi Makinde and Anti-corruption agencies on the lingering issues bothering the two Cooperative Societies comprising the members of the CICS Radio and the CTCS Television Cooperative Societies in BCOS.
According to the report, Oyelade since coming on board in 2019, has stopped allowance and incentives being enjoyed by members of BCOS staff with excuse of unavailability of funds.
The management was also alleged of bloating cost of projects within the corporation.
But reacting on Saturday, the Chairman of RATTAWU, Mr Kola Carew who spoke on behalf of the other unions, said the allegations are false and there was nothing like that as both the management and unions still met three days ago.
He added that even before that time, they went to the management about their deduction and their conclusion was to meet next week, stressing that their relationship with the management is cordial.
“The management told us to go appeal to our members, and that, in the next three months, all our deductions will be cleared.
“But we told the management that before the end of the month of May, one out of the four months should be paid because our people need money. But unfortunately on Friday, people started calling me to check our Whatsapp platform concerning the negative story. Seeing the story, I was shocked.
“I want to categorically say it again that the three unions – two cooperatives comprising the members of the CICS Radio and the CTCS Television and RATTAWU don’t know anything about whatever the report is suggesting, and it is a false information. The story is a rumour because if such statement has to be in the public, I should have signed it. So, we don’t know anything about it.
“What we want this month is full salary payment without deduction and that is our stand. As I talk to you, the management is meeting and we are going to meet again next Tuesday to come to a conclusion. The management has cooperated with us and we are on the verge of resolving the issues at hand. There is a cordial relationship as we have had a meeting together three times this month alone.
“In Oyo State, we have a governor but in BCOS, Prince Oyelade is our Governor. As we speak, he does not owe any salary. So, what are we talking about? The only thing we are talking about is the deduction of our cooperative,” he said.
However, in his reaction, the Chairman of the corporation, Dotun Oyelade said, ordinarily, he would not have responded to the false allegation made, but to the extent that he and the union members of BCOS, engage regularly, as such he has little to say.
While describing the report as hatchet job, by a few disgruntled employees, he said the write up emanated from those who are so eager to cause them embarrassment as they have been able to trace the source.
He said: I can tell you that what happened was hatchet job. One or two people sat down somewhere and decided to cause us embarrassment but we have been vindicated. You see, we are not going to name names but we have confirmed from various sources where the post came from.
“Having said that, I want to appreciate the state government because, in the past four years, it has undertaken financial expenditure here. And given the state of the financial paucity of the country, we should give kudos to Governor ‘Seyi Makinde. We have reached a number of milestones as a result of government’s intervention.
“The state government gives to the BCOS subvention of twenty- Seven Million naira (N27m) every month and the money is always paid on time. Because we have a rather big house – staff strength of 389, we needed to scamper for money to supplement from our internally generated revenue IGR. We supplement every month by N14m. So, that shows we pay from our IGR.
“Other stations have less than One hundred staff, yet we are not complaining because our responsibility and duty to the society differs. Ours is towards welfarism while others are strictly for profit. We are proud to have such number of staff and we are proud of every one of them.
“Every month, we spend fourteen million (N14m ) or a little over to purchase diesel in all the generators we have in our stations, Ibadan, Oke-Ogun, and Ogbomoso. Also, we don’t just sit down complacently as we have an administration that we copy on how to ameliorate and lessen our diesel consumption. If we are able to do that, we will slash it and, by that, we will be saving to pay our indebtedness including our staff’s cooperative and other fiscal responsibilities. That was exactly what we told our people and they agreed with us before this fake news came up.
“We have taken two strategic steps – One is to be more energetic and aggressive in our marketing, which is one reason why we brought in the new Director, Commercial Services to help us drive what the former Director, who is now the General Manager, has been doing. The second step is in terms of the new energy project we are into in collaboration with Lere Adigun Estate’s infrastructure.
“We have agreed with the developer to allow all the deployment of their transformers, purchase all the necessary utensils including cables and meters, which we have procured. We told our staff that by the end of the month, we will start the operation, which will drastically affect the money we spend on diesel. So, we will safe from these extras to meet our demands including the welfare of our staff.”
However, on the allegation of contract inflation as indicated in the report, he said the state government has the Due Process office, and before one can take any kobo from the Due Process, you can imagine the number of investigation that would have gone underneath.
“There are fleet of professionals in government’s kitty and there is no way we can just cook up a figures”, he added.
