Enugu Adopts New Anti-corruption Strategy

The Enugu State Government says it has adopted new measures to fight corruption and fraud in the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Mr Okey Ani, said in Enugu on Thursday that?the ministry had started the fight by ensuring that its officials were punctual to work.

Ani said the government was serious about the issue of punctuality, adding it would apply disciplinary measures against anyone found to be perpetually late.

He said such measures included suspension which could lead to outright termination of appointment.

“We started that because that helps us to identify those who are really working and those who are not working because we have records of attendance.

According to him, “And when you come to take your salary we check the attendance and then we check your name and your ID before the release of the money to you. “The person who is recording the attendance knows those who are attending work and those who don’t attend work.

“So if you appear and you are a strange face you will be held and questioned and if we identify you as a ghost worker you will be prosecuted,” he stated.

“So, meanwhile, it is still obtainable until the biometrics is completed. Once it is completed, we will be able to establish who are the real workers and then separate the grain from the chaff,” he said.

He explained that the ministry would continue with manual payment pending the completion of the biometrics when the accurate records would have been obtained.

Ani said the biometrics was taking time because it required some level of accuracy, adding that many administration attempted it in the past and failed.

He said it was being done zone-by-zone and later local government-by-local government.