By Adekola Afolabi
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Ondo State House of Assembly Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, yesterday came hard on local government officials in the state, saying it would not fold its arms looking while public funds are being mismanaged.
The Chairman of the Committee, Jamiu Maito, who disclosed this at the Assembly complex in Akure, the Ondo state capital, asserted that any local government official found culpable of embezzling or mismanaging public funds would be made to refund it or be ready to face the consequences of his or her action.
He spoke during a meeting of members of the committee held with some selected council officials at the conference room of the Assembly complex.
The meeting was a follow up to the committee’s oversight visits to all the 18 Local Government Areas of the state earlier in 2018.
The separate visits to all the council areas were to inspect capital projects executed between 2016 and early 2017 under the then past leadership of the respective council areas.
The sum of N60m was said to have been disbursed by the immediate past governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, to each of the 18 local governments for the execution of capital projects.
However, during the oversight visits, the committee found out that many of the projects were poorly executed while some were not done at all.
The committee consequently directed affected councils to go back to sites and make necessary corrections and report back to the committee.
This led to the invitation of the leadership of the concerned local governments by the committee, to know if necessary corrections have been made for the betterment of the people in the affected areas.
Maito pointed out that the essence of the oversight function was to ensure public funds were not embezzled or mismanaged by those entrusted with such funds but make sure that the funds were judiciously utilised for the benefit of the people.
He insisted that the purpose for which any public fund was allocated must be achieved in the interest of the people.
The Chairman explained that Akoko North-East and Akoko South East which had earlier been directed by the committee to go back to sites and reconstruct all the poorly executed projects by the officials concerned in the council areas still failed to make necessary corrections.
The Chairman insisted that the committee would submit its report to the House for necessary actions.
He also noted that some things still needed to be verified in Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo, Odigbo and Akure North council areas before their final clearance.
He mentioned a 33KVA transformer installed at a community in Oba-Ile, which is yet to serve its purpose two years after the installation by the contractor.