The visiting inspection team of the Enugu State Ministry of Local Government Matters has scored Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area, under the leadership of Hon. Malachy Agbo high, declaring it as “up-to-date” in almost all the test indices applied in assessing the compliance and performance level of the councils in the state.
A team headed by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mrs. Rose Chiama, was at the local government for an on-the-spot assessment of the administration’s performance in the key areas of payment of salaries and staff welfare, staff productivity, provision of service, provision and maintenance of infrastructures and assets of the council, among others.
The team had openly interacted with the council chairman and the workers where questions were asked to validate claims made by the council.
It was thereafter established that the council had paid salaries up to July with no arrears owed in respect of check-off dues and leave allowances.
In education, the council is running and properly funding the three minimum numbers of Adults and Non Formal Literacy Education centres as required by the state government.
The team also saw kilometers of roads rehabilitated all over the council, the Citizens Rights and Mediation Centre building nearing completion, as well as the water drainage and market expansion projects all being undertaken by the Agbo administration.
On the assets of the council, the team asked of and was shown the tractor and ambulance, all in well-maintained conditions. These and all other possessions of the council were captured and kept in a well-maintained inventory book presented to the team.
The shape the team had met the council so impressed the visitors that the Permanent Secretary had openly declared Igbo-Etiti the most compliant of all the areas so far visited. She praised the Chairman for being the most up-to-date in payments of salaries and staff motivation.
She told hundreds of cheering workers that since the State Governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, had endeavored to make funds available for their salaries which the Chairman had diligently carried out, it was now left for them to reciprocate with high commitment to work.
She said, “As the government is doing its part, you are also to do yours by coming to work and justifying all of these so that your council will keep benefiting from your productivity”.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Local Government Matters, Hon. Innocent Eze, thanked the workers for appreciating the efforts of Governor Ugwuanyi in improving their working conditions and lives in general as citizens of Enugu State, while taking his time to enumerate all the government had done.
The Chairman of the workers union, NULGE, Mr. Hyacinth Obeta, spoke of the cordial relationship that exists between the workers and the council administration.
He restated how the Chairman had pledged and maintained payment of salary as his priority.
He thanked the Chairman for also celebrating them monthly by celebrating workers whose birthdays fell into these months.
He said the workers would always pray for the State Governor for putting the state among the most progressing states in the country.
Meanwhile, the Transition Chairman of the Council, Hon. Malachy Agbo, appreciated the visit and offered that the positive assessment of his administration’s humble efforts and the workers appreciation of his commitment to their welfare would certainly spur him and his team to do more.
He said “Igbo-Etiti is a very productive and peaceful local government area. We have a very cordial relationship with our workers. We pay them and they come to work. Everybody is happy. Productivity has a link with motivation. So we cleared their arrears, including our supervisors. As more money comes we do more.
“If you go back, kindly assure the Governor that all the workers and the good people of Igbo-Etiti are solidly behind him and will definitely show that in 2019 governorship election where he will be returned by our people. All the accolades to the Governor is well-deserved. He is an exemplary leader who takes the plight of the workers seriously and will not relent on doing things that will uplift the welfare of the citizens of the state. Infrastructure, security and peace are his watch words. He will certainly return to the Lion building come 2019 by God’s grace and our votes”.
The various workers that spoke praised the Governor and the Chairman for providing exemplary leadership to the people of the state and the local government and promised that come 2019 their voters cards would be used effectively to return the Governor to office to continue his good works in Enugu State.
