AHEAD of the expiration of the tenure of local government chairmen, the Kwara State government has vowed to sanitise the local government system in the state in order to make the third tier of government viable and self-sustaining.
Speaking during a meeting with 2013-2016 local government councillors at the Government House in Ilorin, on Tuesday, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed said the current recession and the apparent inefficiencies in the third tier of government had made it imperative to reform the management of local councils in the state in order to ensure that they could meet their obligation to the people, especially in terms of salaries and low-level development projects.
The councillors had visited the governor to appeal for the payment of their furniture allowance before the end of their tenure this month.
The governor also said that the local governments would have been made fit for purpose through the ongoing IGR reforms and the biometric verification of staff by the time elections were held into the councils.
He assured the councillors that once the economic situation in the country improves and the government received expected revenue inflows, the local government councils would pay the councillors and others the statutory allowances and entitlements due to them.