Ghost Workers: Governor Ugwuanyi Inaugurates LGA Staff Audit Committee

By IGNATIUS OKPARA, Enugu – Determined to fish out all ghost workers in the 17 Council Areas of Enugu state, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has inaugurated an 11-man committee on Local Government Staff Audit and Biometrics Data Capturing Exercise.

Inaugurating the committee Friday, the governor, mandated them to discharge their duties diligently in order to save the Local Government staff system in the state from imminent collapse.

AFRICAN EXAMINER reports that the committee which is headed by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Edward Ubosi, is saddled with the responsibilities of carrying out the staff audit of the 17 Local Government Areas, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and ascertaining the reason why the local government council Chairmen cannot pay their workers’ salaries.

Ugwuanyi, while addressing members of the committee, noted that the committee’s report will be central to the successful execution of his administration’s plan to institute far reaching reforms that would restore sanity to the local government system and bring to an end, “the incessant complaints, disputes, confusion, impunity and uncertainty” that had long bedeviled personnel administration in the third tiers of government.

He further disclosed that the staff audit exercise was intended to help his administration identify and flush out ghost workers as well plug all avenues of leakages and wastages that have hitherto weighed down the finances of the Local Government Councils in the state.

The governor, charged members of the committee to tackle the new assignment with zeal, and also bring their wealth of experience, competence and personal integrity to bear, in the discharge of their duties for the overall success of the exercise. He stressed that “failure is certainly not an option”

Responding, chairman of the committee, Hon. Ubosi, had thanked the governor for finding them worthy to service in such a sensitive and tasking assignment.

He regretted that efforts made by the previous administration to address the issues of staff audit and salary evaluation had always met brick walls due to the level of sabotage being experienced, assuring the governor of his committee’s commitment to deliver on its mandate in order to move the state forward.