ALGON boss defend massive fraud alleged in Kogi LG Councils, says “It’s all lies”
Category: Kogi News
The chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria,(ALGON),
Kogi state chapter, Aloysius Okino has described as false, and
malicious a publication in a National newspaper that claimed there was
massive fraud in the local councils in Kogi state.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser, Media and Strategy, to
ALGON, Ibrahim Obansa, said that the hatchet job of the reporters has no
value other than the sensation that it has created, adding that It is
nothing but a fiction that has been presented as facts
For the avoidance of doubt, the crisis in the payment of salaries in
the Local Government Councils pre-dates the current State and Local
Government Administrations in the State.
The issue is an inherited problem which His Excellency, Capt. Idris Wada, in his characteristic manner has is tackling frontally with the
active involvement of the council chairmen.
According to him, the imaginary people, Isaac Ibe and Mallam Hassan
Otse which the reporters presented as staff of Igalamela/Odolu and Ijumu
Local Government Areas respectively, are nothing but ghost names, not
know to the councils, saying that the names were merely invented to
buttress concocted lies and evidence.
The chairman further said that the claim by the authors of the ill
conceived piece that allocations have quadrupled is illogical, noting
that the writers had earlier admitted in the early part of their report
that allocations to councils has dropped drastically in 2012 as a result
of the fall in oil price.
“The above claim is not only contradictory, but a case of
approbating and reprobating”, saying that allocation to Local
Government Councils have not quadrupled, rather it has been dropping
progressively.
While the duo of Theophilus Abbah and Usman Bello who wrote the
report created the impression that Local Councils in Kogi State receive
an average of N180 million per month, they presented a table showing
many Local Government Areas receiving only about N120m.
He described this as an invented mathematics to mislead readers,
saying that even if the average of the figures presented is calculated
it will not add up to N180m, saying that the councils deals actual and
not imaginary figures.
“For the avoidance of doubt, in the month of December, 2013, the
total allocation from the federation account (FAAC) was
N3,500,586,497.14 while the amount distributed and disbursed to Local
governments stood at N 1,411,591,455.46, the total salary wage bill
expenditure is N1,876,055,020.15. how can a council pay full salary in
the circumstance” he said.
He noted that various statutory deduction had to be made from the
same amount which includes remittance of N1.362 Billion for teachers
salaries, 1% remitted to Local Government Service Commission, 1%
remitted to Local Government Joint Accounts and 5% for traditional
councils emoluments.
Others according to him include remittance to local Government
pension Board, VAT charges, COT charges as well as 2.5% LGEA
Administrative overhead cost, adding that there has not been any
deductions in the last seven months outside the statutory ones in line
with the governor’s directive.
Speaking further he said in the determined mind-set of the reporters
to create a false impression and report unfairly, the reporters claimed
to have approached the Chairman of Kogi State ALGON for an interview,
saying that this is not true as no such overture was made by them, but a
plan to work to a pre determined answer.
The writers of this piece have, as it is usual of many critics, done
the easier part, but the commitment of Captain Idris Wada and the Local
Government Chairmen in the State to the welfare of the people of Kogi
State remains unwavering.
“I want to state categorically that the inability of councils to pay full salaries was occasioned by over staffing of Local Government Councils Recruitment of non-professional staff into professional departments, with their payment based on professional salary structures. This is in the Health and Agriculture Departments where this wrong placement of personnel impact negatively on the payroll of most Local Government Councils”
“Additionally, in one case, the Works Department of a particular
Local Government has over 200 members of staff and not a single one of
them is an Engineer or possesses any technical proficiency” he noted
He noted further that the declining revenue from the federation
account, Implementation of the new minimum wage without a corresponding
increase in the allocation to councils were also responsible for the
non payment of full salaries.
According to him Some of the other claims in the story are too
pedestrian to deserve any response from serious minded people, noting
that If a bank manager made away with customer’s funds in a bank, it is
the responsibility of the bank to provide answers, and so has no bearing
with the councils, that is if it ever happened.
The chairman who noted that the issues have been slanted to cause
odium and opprobrium to the State, cautioned that due caution be
exercised in the conduct and deployment of the much avowed and time
honoured press freedom.
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