…..Identifies Fraud In Pensions Funds
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state Wednesday kicked off his town hall meetings (campaigns) ahead of his 2019 second term bid with lamentation over the state’s wage bill of N7 billion monthly which he said to be the only state across the county with highest wage bill even as he vowed that his administration was not ready to employ people that cannot be paid at the end of the month.
The Governor who made the lamentation, during the flag off of his 2019 campaigns, held at Ozoro and Oleh, headquarters of the two local government areas of Isoko North and South held that his administration has consistently paid salaries of workers regularly, claiming that funds from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) goes straight to the local government councils.
His words: “I am deeply worried over the huge monthly salaries and wage bills which has greatly slowed down our service delivery to the people. Its not funny at all. We are taking the issue of staff audit very seriously so that we are able to know the exact number of people working and where they are. We cannot continue to pay huge bills without conducting verification exercise.
“Its a task that must be done and the LGAs must also do likewise so that they too can save some money for infrastructure and socioeconomic development of the communities within their constitutional responsibilities. You are aware that some states already discovered serious frauds through staff audit, and the rescued funds are now being deployed into productive ventures, particularly infrastructure and human capital development. Delta State will not be left out.”
Governor Okowa disclosed that another area of huge financial leakages was the pensions funds payment where he said to have been told that a monumental fraud was ongoing, adding that the state government shall deploy strategies to unearth the fraud so that whatever is saved can be applied towards the overall development of the state.
The governor also revealed that, already, a panel has been set to loom into the pensions fraud issue saying that he has directed that representatives from the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) be included for the sake of transparency and to avoid unnecessary insinuations and protests.
While expressing the hope that the situation been faced be the local government workers will soon be a thing of the past once the forcados trunkline is fixed in the next couple of weeks, Governor Okowa told the people that contracts for the execution of projects will not be awarded until there are availability of funds to do so saying that his administration was committed to delivering infrastructure that will stand the test of time.
According to the Governor, most of the projects his administration has executed so far across the state was as a result of proper planning culminating in the phasing of payments to the contractors an assured Deltans that his administration would continue to ensure prudent management of funds to the benefits of the people.
“There has been a lot of destruction of our pipelines and resources to our state is limited, we cannot award contracts when we don’t have the capacity of paying, it will be wrong for us to award contract and contractors will be borrowing money to execute the projects and at the end of the day, some will commit suicide because of their inability to pay their debts to their bankers.
“Since early 2016, large quantity of crude oil has not been lifted from the state as a result of the destruction of the Forcados Export Trunkline. The economic recession that rocked the country, also, affected revenue accruing to the state government. The prices of oil went down and unfortunately, it is the main revenue earner for Nigeria including Delta State.
“So, with such, our revenue went down; apart from the revenue going down, starting from February 2016, half of the oil production in Delta State has not been exported because of the destruction of pipelines but, by the grace of God, the Forcados Trunkline will come on stream in the next few weeks which will bring about more funds to the state and we will have to also assist the local government councils.” Okowa stated.
The however observed that the issue of payment of salaries of local government staff and primary school teachers was a great challenge because, the allocation to that tier of government could not pay their salaries.
“The town hall meeting was in line with my electoral promise of partnering with the people, giving the people the opportunity to contribute to government and allowing them the freedom to express themselves to enable me to be guided in engaging in what the people want.”
On the rampage of Fulani herdsmen across the state coupled with killing, robbing, maiming, raping among others, Governor Okowa re-echoed his call on the Federal Government to formulate policy on the issue, and called on Deltans to be cautious as his administration was tackling the issue in conjunction with security operatives.
HardReporters political editor reports that the town hall campaigns was attended by who is who in Isoko nation politics including, minority leader, federal house of representatives, Mr. Leo Ogor Okuweh and the former Secretary to the Delta State government, SSG, Comrade Ovuozorie Macaulay among others.
