Chairmen of the 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas in Ogun State are currently adopting survival strategies to run their councils following an alleged decision of the state government to withhold their monthly allocations.
Investigations by our correspondents revealed that most of the council bosses, inaugurated after their election on October 9, 2016, had abandoned their offices following their inability to meet their obligations to their constituents and staff members.
Many of the chairmen, who spoke with our correspondents on conditions of anonymity to avoid any form of victimisation, alleged that the state government deliberately stifled their operations by its action.
They alleged that 24 months after their swearing-in, the state government had only paid each of them a paltry allocation of N2m on six occasions, amounting to N12m each in two years.
One of them said, “The state government has completely taken over our responsibilities. There is nothing like security vote or monthly allocation for a very long time.
“We have only collected N2m allocation each on six occasions in the last 24 months.
“To worsen the situation, we have signed a joint document at the state level which permits the state government to remove money from the councils’ allocations to pay for projects executed by the state but cited in local government areas.
“The state government also claimed that it is giving us N500, 000 security votes every month but this is not correct. We only collected that amount on three occasions since we were sworn-in.”
Further investigations by our correspondents revealed that the state had taken over the responsibilities of paying salaries of council workers and primary school teachers.
The development has obviously striped the councils of their rights and obligations as enshrined in the nation’s constitution, which grants them full financial autonomy as the third tier of government.
A member of the state House of Assembly told one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity that the Commissioner for Finance in the state, Mr. Wale Oshinowo, answered questions relating to the issue when he was summoned by the state legislature on Thursday.
Although Oshinowo was summoned over the alleged disappearance of the last tranche of the Federal Government bailout funds of N17.3bn released to the state, he was also asked why the state decided to usurp the roles of the third tier of government.
The commissioner, during the interrogation, jointly conducted by House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, asked the commissioner to explain the delay in the implementation of the local government autonomy.
Oshinowo was also said to have encountered a great difficulty explaining the justification for the Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led government’s takeover of some Internally Generated Revenues’ functions from local governments.
Some of the LGs revenue generating functions taken over by the state included signage and commercial motorcycles permit and contributory deductions.
But Oshinowo told our correspondent on Saturday that the chairmen were not owed salaries and security votes but a two-month allocation for projects which they claimed to have executed.
He said, “So far, we have paid more than 10 months but we have not seen what they have done. They have started rolling in their reports. We will review them and the moment their report is okay, we will give additional funds we are having in our savings by the end of this month.
“We do not owe them security votes, salaries and other allowances. We only owe them two months and it is because we have not received the pictorial details of the projects they executed with the money they had received so far.
“We owe them just two months and I have told the commissioner for local government affairs to give us details of what they have done with the money we have paid them to date.
“The moment they give us, we will start paying the local government that have complied with the directive. We are custodian of funds; we cannot just be giving money without seeing what they have done with the money.”
When contacted on the telephone, Deputy Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly, Mr. Olakunle Oluomo, declined comments when asked if there is a petition before the House from any of the council bosses about the non-payment of their allocation.
He, however, confirmed that one of the members of the committee demanded explanations on the LG allocations from the finance commissioner when he appeared before the House panel on Thursday.
He said, “One of the members asked the commissioner to explain the issue of local government funding which is already in the public domain. The committee is interested in making sure that the state government uses the Paris Club refund to settle all outstanding obligations.”
Punch
