In a bid to check looting at the Local Government treasury, Governor of Enugu State , Barrister Sullivan Chime and the State House of Assembly, have resolved to monitor the use of monthly allocations by council chairmen.
In a separate interview, Commissioner of Local Government , Barrister Frank Asogwah, and Chairman of the House Committee on Local Government , Honourable Cletus Onyekwelu Enebe, said measures have been put in place to monitor the use of the Funds .
Specifically, Asogwah said Asogwah has ordered proper monitoring of the use of the Funds , while Enebe said the Assembly wants a situation where the level of Development in the Local Government is equal to the Funds allocated to them.
Asogwah said what Chime wants is that All chairmen Are expected to submit the estimates or budgets every month, as they come to collect their cheques.
He said what his office will be doing is to check whether the Local Government chairmen live up to expectations in terms of following the budgets, as they come forward to collect another allocation..
He said by so doing, the State Government would be in a position to compel the Local Government to embark on Development projects that will benefit the people at the grassroots level.
He said Government intends to employ Services of experts in various fields of endeavour to monitor some projects in the Local Government .
Speaking on what the Assembly intends to do in the Local Government , Enebe, who described the problemas sickening, said the issue has been discussed with the Governor .
“It is something that one cannot comprehend, because successive chairmen have always tried to work outside the coffers of Law, outside the coffers of Financial regulations, outside the issue of budgetary provisions.” How can you run a Local Government without a budget”, he said.Enebe said that what the House intends to do is to tackle the problem through the introduction of a bill that will bring the problem at the Local Government level to an end,“Apart from the Law, my Committee has decided that we Are going to ensure that before any Local Government chairman picks up the next allocation, he must have told us what he has done with the previous one. If the money is in the Bank , we want to know the Bank and the balance there”, he said.He added, “we cannot continue to allow people to shortchange the State . People use Government Funds to build their own private houses and Estates at the expense of the poor masses. It is unfair”.