Dissatisfied with the non payment of full salary of council workers in Kogi State, the state government has announced the take-over of the payment of the workers of the 21 council areas in the state.
Workers of the councils in the state have not been receiving their monthly full due but reportedly been receiving their salary based on percentage ranging between 20 and 30 monthly.
Speaking during a meeting with the 21 council chairmen in the state, the governor, Captain Idris Wada, who expressed his displeasure on such act, made it known that henceforth, the state government would be paying the council workers’ salaries, believing that it had become an embarrassment to the state government.
The governor, who frowned on alleged financial recklessness and lack of probity of some council bosses, charged them to turn a new leaf and put the interest of the electorate at the centre of their policies.
He explained that as part of efforts to promote the welfare of the people, especially at the grass-roots, the state government had concluded arrangement to set up an audit panel to investigate the accounts of all the 21 councils in the state.
The audit, it was reported, might be contracted to more than one firm which must be concluded within three weeks.
According to him “We are going to sanitize the local government system in Kogi State. A situation where most of the chairmen can not pay pay full staff salaries is not healthy for development and efforts must be made to rescue the trend.
“We can not allow this sorry situation to continue. Any local government chairman found to be fraudulent at the audit exercise would be prosecuted. They would be handed over to the appropriate authorities of our land to face the wrath the law”
Wada therefore warned the local government Chairmen not to allow inordinate political ambition to becloud their current mandate to the people,urging those who never satisfied serving as council chairman to resign now to enable him pursue other ventures without jeopardising public interest.
