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Harmony holdings staff cry out over worsening working condition

...protest 9 months salary arrears, accuses GMD of recklessness, highhandedness

By Mike Adeyemi
Staff of Harmony Holdings subsidiaries, Harmony Investment and Property Development Company(HIPDC),Harmony Ventures and Supplies Limited (HVS), penultimate Friday have staged a protest to registered their displeasure over non payment of 9 months salary.
Chanting protest songs and carrying placards, the staff accused the Group Managing Director, Abdullahi AbdulMajeed of recklessness and highhandedness as he deliberately undermine the enormity of their problems.
Speaking with National Pilot on the issue, a staff of Harmony holdings who pleaded anonymity described the present state of the company as deplorable, deteriorating and pathetic.
According to the source, ‘the deplorable position we have in harmony holdings today has worsen more than how it was in the last administration.’
“Unfortunately, we expect that things should be going on smoothly better than what we had before. But I tell you ,what we have now is even worse than the way this administration met it.
“Staff welfare is not considered a priority by the present administration. We have a minimum of 5 months salary arrears and we have as high as 9 months. Sadly this hasn’t be addressed,” he said.
Continuing,”Harmony holdings is a good concept, but we have not gotten it right because we haven’t given it the required attention.’
“If you have asset bequeathed to you to manage ,of course if those assets are in deplorable conditions, you need fund to put it in state which it will start to generate revenue. Unfortunately this government has refused to inject fund into the operation of Harmony holdings.
“The staff are working with their personal tools, couple with the highhandedness of the GMD because he came with a wrong perception that people are stealing. But what you are accusing people of doing is exactly what you are doing.
“We have a situation where we said we don’t have enough money in the company’s coffer, and you have the person at the helms of affairs collecting N800,000 to travel. All these are killing the system. And when he comes back there is no accountability under the guise of working for the governor,” he stressed.
The source added that harmony as a limited liability company requires a business savvy person to run it, not a politician as what is in vogue at present.
“Harmony holdings is a limited liability company. Unfortunately we have a politician at the helms of affair who hasn’t been able to distinguished between running a business and politics.
“The GMD also have a habit of late coming, most times he is not at the office until 1pm everyday, mostly wasting the productive hours of the day .He has never come to office early and the few time you see him around, he is always attending to his fellow politicians.
“Also we have a situation with the recruitment process whereby the GMD often recruit incompetent people, people mostly from a particular community. He is running the company as a sole administrator. What we have now at harmony holdings is an abuse of corporate governance.
“When it comes to the issue of salary, he sees it as if he is doing us a favour. People you don’t pay their salaries regularly you still deduct late coming charges from their salary. That is wickedness, ” the source added.
He however advised that a core professional is urgently needed to turn around the fortune of Harmony holdings from its present state.
“Government need to make it work. 18 months is too long for you not to have a board. No budget, no business review. He brought in contractors at higher prices as we had instances in HADC, HHL investment and Kwara express without allowing for due process, ” he concluded.
When contacted for comment by our reporter, the Group Managing Director of Harmony Holdings, Alhaji Abdullahi Abdulmajeed said he was about to offer his Maghrib prayers and requested to be called back.
Calls that were later put across to him were not answered. He also didn’t return the calls before the paper went to bed.

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