In its determination to stamp out suspected ghost worker- syndrome in the 17 local council areas in the state and also resolve the riddle of non-payment of staff salaries in some of the councils, the Enugu state government has commenced a comprehensive audit of the local governments across the state.
This was sequel to the recent inauguration of an 11-man Local Government Audit Committee by the state governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, with the Speaker of the House of Assembly as its Chairman. The committee has a mandate to carry out comprehensive audit of all the local governments in the state in the wake of the afforesaid nagging problems.
In line with the governor’s order, the committee has swung into action and started staff verification audit across the 17 local councils, with Igbo-Eze North and Igbo-Eze South councils as the first port of call for the officials charged with the responsibility of carrying out the inquisition.
The audit committee became necessary following alleged inefficiency and inability to pay workers salaries by various council areas in the state, a situation which prompted the Governor to peep into the manner in which the local councils are run to find lasting solutions to their challenges and make them effective and result-oriented.
The governor had while inaugurating the committee mandated it to take appropriate actions to capture the particulars of all staff of local government areas in the state, biometrically including all categories of teachers, local government staff and pensioners.
Hence, in the two local government councils covered so far, those grilled in the audit exercise included thousands of primary school teachers, local government staff and pensioners, all of whom were required to personally present themselves and documents identifying them in line with their status as public servants.
The committee also received the governor’s mandate to explore other matters incidental to the terms of reference as regards local government administration and make appropriate recommendations to government.
Speaking at the Igbo-Eze North local government secretariat, chairman of the committee and Speaker of Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Edward Ubosi, commended the workers for cooperating with the committee and advised them to always be punctual and dedicated to duty after the exercise. By Uwakwe Abugu, CPS to the governor.
