Enugu Assembly Probes LGs’ Accounts

The Enugu State Assembly Committee on Public Accounts and
Anti-corruption says it is investigating the 17 local government councils to
determine how they are managing public funds.

Speaking in an interview in Enugu on Thursday, the Chairman
of the committee, Mr Okechukwu Nwoke, said the committee had visited the 17
council areas in the state so far.

He said it was not easy to get into the books of the
councils in the past four years, adding that the committee was still compiling
the reports.

Nwoke said the committee gave some time to the new council
chairmen to execute projects before they could go back to look into their
books.

He explained that the committee was trying its best to look
into the accounts and how money was being managed in the LGAs.

He added that because of the peculiarity of demand of each
council area, the committee could not have strict measures of projects
executed.

“If you go to local
government ‘A’, their terrain may be so bad that they need road construction
and then when you go to local government `B’, it may be source of drinkable
water then you go to local government `C’, their need might be electricity.

“You could see that there is no strict measure on what each
local government will do.

“But what we want to say is what is the demand of the rural
populace in those LGs, what do they need and how has the LG chairmen responded
positively and in a very major way is affecting the lives of those people.”