Lecturers at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso have called on the governments of Oyo and Osun states to pay the eight months salary owing its members rather than dwelling on the proposed auditing of the school account as excuse.
According to the institution’s chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, it said that its members are in support of the account auditing, noting that it should not be used as an excuse to justify the withholding of their 8 months salaries.
Signed by its chairman, Dr. Abiodun Olaniran, the statement added that it was not the responsibility of the union to ensure the periodic auditing of the school account but government.
The statement reads; “the union cannot be blamed for failure of the periodic to periodic auditing of university books and activities is a statutory procedure and this is even recognized by the university’s edict. If this has been left undone over some period, the staff should not be held responsible for it.
“While our union is not opposed to the exercise, it should not be used as an excuse to justify holding on to our members salaries for eight months. Let the government fulfill its obligation as even recommended by its own visitation panel, then whatever auditing exercise they want to carry out can continue.
“Our union is a law – abiding one, and will not stand in the way of accountability and transparency but will not allow our members to be subjected to humiliation of economic key deprivation and starvation for an “offence” they never committed. To us, the ploy by government to paint ASUU as standing in the way of auditing exercise is a cheap blackmail which cannot stand in the face of the logic of the present realities.
“For the avoidance of doubt, let it be clearly stated that healthy existence of a public university like LAUTECH rests on a multiplex of co-operative critical stands that are ready to discharge their individual and corporate responsibilities.
“If any of these stands fails to live up to the billing of its grid of expectations, the result is chaos, anguish and ultimate annihilation. On the part of government, one of its critical responsibilities is funding. This, the governments of Oyo and Osun states have abandoned since 2013 in various degrees.”
The union therefore urged the two states to as fulfill their own part of the recommendation of the visiting panel to the institution, adding that auditing of the account is one out of the recommendations.
“It was in the recognition of this human angle to the crisis that the visitation panel recommended an immediate release of what both Oyo and Osun states are owning the institution to immediately enliven the dampened morale of the workers. It is surprising that the governments are not addressing this issue before insisting on the forensic auditing which is just one of the panel’s recommendations.”
