By Amos Aar
THE MAJORITY Leader, Benue State House of Assembly, Hon. Saater Tiseer, has explained that the Assembly is investigating activities of local government caretaker committees across the 23 local government councils of the state since the inception of Governor Hyacinth Alia’s administration in order to ensure a functional local government system.
Tiseer, who is the chairman of the ad hoc committee, made this known when the committee began its duty with a visit to Vandeikya local government council on Monday.
He said the exercise was for the Assembly to know exactly what was happening at the third tier of government.
According to him, the House was interested in ascertaining how much was accruing to each local government from the federation account, what they received from the state joint account, expenditures, their wage bill, staff strength among many other vital information.
The majority leader lamented that despite huge funds allocated to the local governments, chairmen were finding it very difficult to tackle issues of insecurity and provision of basic infrastructure, frowning at poor attitude of staff to work.
He asked the local government caretaker chairmen to assemble all staff of their councils for verification by the committee, warning that the committee would not tolerate any form of insubordination from any local government caretaker committee chairman.
Responding, caretaker committee chairman of Vandeikya local government council, Mr Denis Guda, represented by the Director, General Services and Administration (DGSA) of the local government, Mrs Mercy Ngia, thanked the Assembly for showing interest and concern in the activities of local governments in the state and expressed optimism that the investigation would culminate into a better welfare for the local governments.
The ad hoc committee is scheduled to visit Kwande local government area on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 in continuation of the investigation.
