Commission Indicts Enugu LGAs Over N11bn Federal Allocations

The Judicial Commission of

Inquiry set up by the Enugu State Government to probe the activities of the 17 Local Government Councils in Enugu State from January 1999 to  December 31, 2007,  has said that over N11 billion  of  federal allocations to local government councils in the state within the period was  not accounted for during the period under  review.

The Chairman of the seven – member commission, Justice Anthony Onovo, made this known while presenting the report of the commission to the state governor, Barrister Sullivan Chime at Government House, Enugu.

The recommendation of the commission, he said, was that the  the huge sum of money be recovered from all the people responsible for the loss.

Onovo explained that the commission went through the cash books and payment vouchers provided by the 17 local governments and the 39 development centers as well as scrutinised a total of 50,094 payment vouchers of the local governments from the year 2006 and also inspected and verified projects executed.

He, however, said that the commission was unable to receive any single document relating to allocation of revenue to the local government in the state out of the federation account for any part of the period under review from any officer past or present in the state.

Onovo noted that the total amount received by the local government was over N79 billion made up of over N7 billion direct payment to the council and over N71 billion allocation paid to the councils through the Ministry of Finance.

He said that while the 17 Local Government Areas received the sum of over N7 billion from June 1999 to April 2002 by  direct allocation,  the sum of over N38 billion was through the Ministry of Finance for the  same period.

From investigation, he said the commission found no explanation for the where about of the sum of over N3 billion, and also that allocations to the local governmentwere usually not in full because they were used for the state for purpose other than those authorised and could not find explanation for the sum of N3 billion transferred out of JAAC account into various state government accounts.

The commission also noticed a lot of impurity in the past with tales of missing public documents some of which were allegedly burnt and beyond recovery, as it further recommended the recovery of COT from the Banks in view of a central bank circular on it and recovering of over seven billion naira N7 billion, N3,423,475,356.84,  N3,076,429,603.32 from the former Accountant General (AG),who refused to give any explanation for those transfers and non appearance of the funds in JAAC Account.

It also recommended greater effort and accountability in revenue generation in the local government administration in the state,

recovering of over payment of security vote made to council chairmen for a period of between 2006 – 2007, and recovering of the sum  of N232, 602,437.70 from treasurers of eleven local governments that failed to post the money paid to the council into their main cash books.

The commission blamed the local government service commission and ministry of local government in the state for failure to discharge their statutory responsibilities on issues of guidelines and

monitoring of the activities of the council and recommended that local governments should on monthly bases prepare bank reconciliation statement and submit to the commission before receiving the next allocation.

Receiving the report, Governor Chime thanked them for a job well done despite odds and challenges they encountered.

His words:  “From the survey, it is obvious that you did a detailed insight in the activities of the local government.”

The Governor therefore assured them that the report would  be studied in details and take appropriate steps to implementing the recommendations, assuring that the local government would not be the same in the state by the time he leaves office.