RVHA Probes TIMARIV Boss Over Alleged Impropriety

The leadership of the Rivers State Road Traffic Managament Authority (TIMARIV), has been accused by staff of financial impropriety and running the body as personal estate. A petition written by a TIMARIV offcial, Mr Peterside Beke Chinda, and presented on the floor of the state House Assembly by Hon Azubuike Wanjoku, during yesterday’s plenary session, alleged that the Comptroller General of the agency, Mr Nelson Jaja, had been involved in misappropriation of funds.

The petitioner alleged that those in management positions at the agency use their relatives and friends to get contracts and pay inflated sums of money, stressing that private accounts were used to pay monies realised from fines and administative charges.

“Mr Chinda equally accused the TIMARIV boss of squandering funds released by the office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) meant for special operations.

“There was a special operation that started around July, 2011 . It was paid for by SSGs office but our Comptroller General was still using money from the authority to pay for the special operations, where is the money from the SSG office? How much has he collected?, the petitioner queried.

He also alleged that the leadership created a lot of annexes that did not have  any agreement paper with the authority, noting that any officer or area boy can arrange a yard where offenders’ cars could be taken to and money extorted from victims as fine and the demurrage shared.

The brother and sister to the Comptoller-General are contractors whose companies were allegedly used to siphon funds from the agency, the petitioner indicated. It added that Mr Sojiye who is the former head of procurement resigned and took away the authority’s official Kia car and other property since December 2012, alleging that no effort had been made to recover the items because he is Jaja’s lawyer and friend .

According to to him, “we were told that probation will be six months but today it is almost three years, and we have not been confirmed, our pension and taxes have been deducted from our salaries but have not been remitted since.

The petitioner urged the state Assembly to intervene and rescue the workers from bad management at TIMARIV and save the authriorty.

Speaker of the Assembly, Rt Hon Otelemaba Amachree directed the Public Complaints and Petitions Committee to investigate the issues raised in the petition and report back to the House within two weeks.