Eleme Begins Staff Audit, Monday

The Eleme Local Gov
ernment Area Council will from Monday, next week, begin staff verification designed to fish-out ghost workers from the council’s monthly wage bill.
Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Council, Barr Philip Okparaji who made this known yesterday in a meeting he held with the executive of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) said the council could no longer shoulder the huge bill incurred on questionable staff salaries.
He described as outrageous monthly imprest of some council officials, which range from N100,000 to N500,000, saying, a total review was imminent.
Barr. Okparaji solicited the support of the NULGE leadership in his efforts to streamline council activities, saying, unless those illegal imprests were reviewed, the council cannot offer meaningful service to the people.
“The unfortunate thing is that those outrageous imprests were fixed by the beneficiaries without any specific law guiding such earnings”, he lamented.
The CTC Chairman explained that the personnel audit was not intended to witch-hunt anyone but to have an accurate head-count of the council staff with a view to blocking financial leakages.
He told the NULGE leadership that every staff would be required to present letter of first appointment, last promotion and valid salary bank account.
Barr. Okparaji used the forum to inform the workers of progress so far made in  halting the inter-cult wars in the LGA and announced that Eleme has enjoyed relative peace in the last three weeks.
With that peace, he said, rehabilitation of some roads at Nchia and Alesa have begun, while, the skill Acquisition workshop for the youth would soon take-off.