The Oyo State House of Assembly Committee on Public Account has enjoined the local government authorities in the state to follow due process, and be meticulous while handling state finances.
The Chairman, Public Account Committee of the Assembly, Mr Rahman Olorunpoto gave this challenge after a one-week Legislative hearing on consideration of the Auditors-General’s reports on the account of local governments for the years 2021, and 2022.
The lawmaker clarified in his statement that the hearing was not a witch-hunt but an adherence to due process to guarantee accountability and transparency in the management of public funds. He confirmed that all the 33 local governments, and LCDA principal officers were duly interrogated. He further assured that the report of the exercise would be submitted to the House during plenary which the 10th assembly will consider.
At the review exercise which had members of the Public Account Committee and representatives of the Auditor-General in the local governments present, the chairman explained that there were too many avoidable errors in their papers. He suggested that this points to the need for capacity development, training and retraining, as well as ICT Empowerment for local government workers.
“I want to tell you that there is no intention to witch-hunt, all that we’re trying to do is to ensure that our books are up to date. We also want to ensure that things are done properly. Apart from auditing figures, we also want to audit the process, we want to know what led to what, at what point paper A moved to the next office and through what means. We need to know that you’re working in line with the necessary processes.
“We have been mandated by the constitution to engage ministries, departments and agencies of the state and local government to review the auditor general’s reports
“Whatever we want to do, let’s do the right thing. We’re poised to score important points for accountability and transparency for this government. We want to be sure that we can boast of our records
Mr Olorunpoto insinuated a transformation to digital communication and interaction between the Assembly, MDA’s and LG authorities in future exercises. He advised council chairmen to also tow the path of digital record keeping.
“We have dealt with more than 500 documents hard copies in the last 5 days. This is not something that should continue. Our shelves are already filled up with documents, so we want to see how we can get them to go Digital. When they go Digital with documentation, they should also go digital with IGR collections, so we will be able to block leakages.
Interacting with newsmen, the ALGON Chairman, Mr Sikiru Sanda and his Ogo Oluwa LG counterpart, Mr. Oluwaseun Ojo remphasized that the exercise would reawaken the consciousness of elected and career officers at the local government levels to be prudent with public funds.
Source
RadioNigeriaIbadan
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