The member for Nsit
Atai State Constituency in the Akwa
Ibom House of Assembly has
said that there will be quarterly
oversight activities by the
House Committee on Local
Government and Chieftaincy
Affairs at the local government
level to ensure effective administration in that level of government which is closer to the
people.
Elder Mark Esset, who said
this while speaking on Planet
FM recently, said the committee which he is the chairman
will not be deterred from carrying out its functions from
first quarter of 2021 as the new
set of council officers have
been sworned into office.
"We will not relent in our effort of oversight functions by
the first quarter of 2020. We
will ensure kthat we follow up
activities at the relevant government ministry which is that
of the Local Government and
Chieftaincy Affairs, Local Government Service Commission,
and the local government
councils to make the new officers to be abreast with Local
Government Administration
Law, Esset stated.
He added that with the importance of the local government which is closer to the
people, it was pertinent to up hold transparency and accountability in the discharge
of functions by council officers.
The lawmaker stated that although he was in support of
the local government tier, he
was also advocating for that
level of government to be
strengthened for the proposed local government autonomy to be realized.
Esset maintained that there
were factors to be considered
while asking for the autonomy
of the local government which
include having the right foundation of empowering the legislative council of the local
government administration
and other aspects of the executive arm, so that policies
and programmes could be run
and achieved smoothly without breaches to any aspect of
the law as it concerns that level
of governance.
"We cannot place the cart
before the horse, the foundation should be right and
strengthened for the players
to be accountable and follow
due process, he said.
The lawmaker noted that the
existing Joint Local Government and State Account Committee (JAC) was for accountability and monitoring, adding
that it has enabled and facilitated the payment of arrears
of salaries of workers in the 31
local government areas.
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