Gov. Gaidam says he has insulated LGAs from corruption

Gov. Gaidam says he has insulated LGAs from corruption

Gov. Gaidam, dpty,, Abubakar Aliyu, others at the opening session of the opening ceremony of the LG retreat in Damaturu

Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam has said that his administration’s partnership with donor agencies and international partners on   governance reforms resulted to  the 'blocking of leakages' in the revenues and finances of the local governments in the state.

“There is sanity in the local government system in the state now… all leakages have been blocked.  We will continue to block any new leakages that might crop up in the future", the governor said. 

According to the governor, such reforms have also save volumes of money into government coffers resulting to  prompt payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities and execution of meaningful projects are of direct  impact  and value for the  people at the grassroots.

Gov. Gaidam stated  this today at the opening of a two-day retreat on "Improving the Goal Setting Processes in Local Governments in Yobe State" organized by the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in conjunction with Superlative Consults holding at the State Secretariat.

The retreat according to the organizers is targeted for council chairmen, deputy chairmen, councilors, secretaries and other senior technical staffs  of the Local Government Councils in the state.

"When we took over (the leadership of the state), about seven or eight local governments were unable to pay their workers' salaries or execute any projects for their people. We had to take money from some of the LGs that were solvent to help those that were insolvent and unable to pay their workers. Those LGs couldn't even provide potable drinking water to their communities.

"We strategized. We worked to ensure that all the LGs in the state could pay their workers promptly and not only salaries but also pensions for retired civil servants and gratuities for retirees.

"We also got the LGs to develop work plans for the execution of various developmental projects. The first approval I gave for the implementation of such work plans was for N5.1 billion. Many work plans followed and in the most recent one, some of the LGs got an approval of between N400 million and N500 million on the basis of the capacity of each of the local government councils. Some of the projects under this work plan have already been fully completed and paid", the governor said.

The governor announced  that as at today, the 17 local governments have over N7 billion in their accounts.

The governor  particularly noted that his adminstration’s relationship with the State Partnership for Accountability, Responsiveness and Capable Government (SPARC) and the Local Government Reform Programme (SLOGOR),  has recorded uncommon  results  in its governance system, stressing that,  "This has resulted in the achievement of numerous successes in our overall service delivery mechanisms particularly in the adoption of Result-Based Management System and institutionalization of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system for tracking our budget performance", he said.

“I can say without fear of contradiction that the implementation of the reform initiatives by our administration since assumption of office ten years ago has undoubtedly been responsible for the tremendous change in the development landscape of our state. The reforms have resulted in our ability to continue to pay salaries, pensions and gratuities and execute capital projects without taking any loans from any commercial bank. This is evidenced by the rapid expansion of basic infrastructure covering all sectors and the resultant improvement in the living conditions of the people”, the governor added.

On his part, the Chairman of ALGON in the state who is also the Chairman Gujba Local Government, Alhaji Kyari Batrama also agreed that the reforms in the local government have yielded fruitful results for the state.

He noted that none of the seventeen local governments in the state has ghost workers on their payroll at the moment, just as redundancy has also been pushed out of the system.

According to him, administrators need to understand and be actively engaged in governance, while commending the time of the workshop and its impact on local government value chain.

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