Staff audit: Osun workers flay govt over BVN request

Some civil servants in Osun State have flayed the state government for requesting their Bank Verification Numbers and other information to be submit before Wednesday.

Some of the workers at the State Civil Service Secretariat argued that  the BVN was their personal number and should not be disclosed to anybody because the number could be used to defraud their account if it got to the wrong hands.

One of the workers said, “We have been on this staff audit for years yet it is still ongoing. Despite the daily staff screening, salaries are not regular and they are now asking us to disclose our BVN. I hope they won’t ask us to submit our ATMs and their PIN with the way they are going.”

Some of the workers said they would not submit the BVN because  they believed the numbers were not necessary for the exercise.

Our correspondent sighted the circular issued from the Department of  Planning, Research and Statistics of the Ministry of Finance on Monday asking civil servants in the state to fill a form indicating their names, Chams Identity card number, BVN and bank accounts. The BVN is one of the information marked as mandatory on the form.

The circular  with reference number AD/2/405/19 and dated February 18, 2016 pasted at the Ministry of Women Affairs is entitled ” Re: Cleaning of payrolls of state  and local government workers in State of Osun.”

The circular read, ” Further to the circular letter with reference number AD/2/405/7 dated 7th September 2015, on the above subject matter, I am directed to request every member of staff of your ministry/ department/ agency to complete the format bellow which should be forwarded to the Ministry  of Finance not later than Wednesday 24th February, 2016.”

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party has criticised the state government for requesting workers to disclose their BVN.

The spokesperson for the PDP in Osun State, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, who said this, accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration of planning to waste additional N35m on the payrolls cleaning aside N97m the administration had wasted on the same exercise since 2010.

The statement reads: “BVN is a sensitive private number to be kept secret for Bank transactions and not meant to be given out to anybody and we wonder why Osun Government is demanding for it”

 

[Punch]