Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Peter Jack, has been suspended indefinitely over what was described as “misconduct” unbecoming of a public officer of his cadre. The suspension took effect from January 20, 2016.
Meanwhile, Vincent Olatunji has been named as acting director-general of the Agency with immediate effect, pending the outcome of the planned investigations.
Victor Oluwadamilare, special assistant on media to the minister of communications, said in a statement that the suspension became imperative on the strength of deluge of petitions regarding several alleged wrong doings in NITDA and subsequent preliminary findings of an investigative committee set up by the ministry.
These petitions against Jack relate to illegal employments not approved by the appropriate authority, and procurements carried out in direct contraventions of laid down rules and procedure unknown to Civil Service administration in Nigeria.
Some of the infractions identified by the investigative committee made up of three senior ministry officials include unauthorised illegal recruitment of 245 additional staff within a spate of seven months.
According to the committee’s findings, “as at May 29, 2015, NITDA only had a staff complement of 74. However, from May 2015 to 31st December 2015, additional 245 staff had been employed in questionable circumstances despite clear instruction from the Ministry directing suspension of employment in the Agency.”
On the alleged financial misdemeanour, the committee opined that the situation in the Agency would require a more detailed professional auditing of NITDA’s finances to determine the true state of the financial health of the Agency.
Consequently, Jack has been suspended from office so as to allow for further independent investigations of his stewardship in the last three years.
Olatunji, until his appointment as the acting DG, was the director of corporate strategy and research in the Agency. He joined NITDA in 2002.
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