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From Adetutu Folasade-Koyi
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has sensationally declared that the present Local Government administration in the country is a fraud.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Sun, Ortom, a one-time local government chairman, said the third tier government, which ought to enhance developmental projects in the grassroots, has lost its usefulness.
He decried the over bloated workforce in most local governments across the country and regretted that most supposed workers earn salaries for doing nothing. He also dismissed insinuations that he meddles with local government funds and said he remits whatever fund due to the local governments in his State from the federal government.
“Local Government is just a fraud. Nothing is happening there; they just collect money. Some people insert unborn children on the pay roll. I know of a traditional ruler with 15 wives and all the wives and children are local government staff. And when you don’t pay, they begin to create problems for you.
“The Bible says a worker deserves wages. It’s when you work that you deserve those wages; if you don’t work, you don’t deserve anything. But this is not what is happening in all the local governments. Some have 1,500 staff; you don’t need it. So this is the problem,” the governor said.
On the clamour for autonomy for the local governments Ortom said: “I was privileged to be local government chairman of this local government from 1991 to 1993; then, we had autonomy. I understand they are also looking for autonomy now. But that autonomy then ran into troubled waters. Local governments elsewhere in the world are an appendage of State government. We say we have three tiers of government, but the local government operates under the supervision of the state.
“To me, autonomy should be about money. I don’t have anything to do with local government funds as it is today. I met a system that was operated by my predecessor where local government puts money together and the state adds to execute projects; they called it projects account. But since I came in I discovered the funds were not enough for the local governments, and a lot of people accuse us here and there, I decided to ban that account. So, whatever comes for the local government goes to them. I have no business interfering in their accounts and all that.
The governor said his biggest challenge with the local governments was the issue of arbitrary employment.
“I can tell you, because I served in this local government, that even now, this local government does not need 250 staff to make it functional, but there are over 1,200; and so it is with all the local governments. Politicians derive pleasure from recruitment. When they come, they do recruitment until they don’t know what to do again. And I tell you, very few local government staff come to work. But if you say come and collect salary by hand, you will see the whole place filled up and you will be wondering if they are really local government staff. There are people I know who operate freely in Makurdi who are staff of Vandeikya Local Government, which is over 100 kilometers from here. Every day you see them in Makurdi and the same thing happens in Guma. So local government is just a fraud.”
