The General Secretary of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Chukwuemeka Aguonye, speaks on the alleged fraud being perpetrated by the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), an association of chairmen of local governments across the country through illegal deduction of millions of Naira centrally from money allocated to local governments from the Federation Account. SOJI-EZE FAGBEMI, gives the excerpts.
You just held your National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, what were the main issues involved?
We held a NEC meeting yesterday where we received reports from various states across the country on the level of corruption going on in the Local Government system being perpetrated under ALGON. We were told that funds of various states in the federation were being depleted with phony contracts purportedly awarded by ALGON, thereby making things very difficult for local governments. For example, we were made to know that in Ekiti last month, under ALGON, they deducted N107 million from Joint Account Allocation meant for Ekiti State Local Government, while that of Ondo, the sum of N163 million was deducted from money allocated to local government from federation account. Across the country it has been like that and this impunity must stop.
But can ALGON as a body award contracts on behalf of a local government and what are the implications of this?
ALGON is not a local government. ALGON cannot enter into a contract on behalf of any local government because ALGON is an association by chairmen of local government and caretakers. NULGE frowned at this because it has affected payment of salaries, implementation of programmes and policies that would have positive impacts on the lives of the Nigerian people.
What is your position and immediate demand on this?
We say that this should be stopped, and we are calling on EFCC to probe where that fund is being diverted to. If money has been allocated to the local government to carry out meaningful projects and development and somebody hides under one name and starts pilfering local government funds, we won’t accept it and it must be probed. That is why in so many states they cannot pay salaries.
Recently, you can see the governor of Ekiti State coming out to say that he is not going to pay minimum wage for three months. The money that is not even enough for the local government, somebody somewhere sits down and says he is collecting variation, and they are deducting it. What they said they are deducting now is not even the money meant for that project, that was purportedly carried out, that is not visible, that cannot be seen. We are therefore calling on the EFCC, ICPC and NFIU to probe the details of that phony contract because it is a fraudulent contract and that has affected local government.
Does ALGON claim it executed this contract in the past?
That was what they claimed, and if you have constructed a Primary Health Center, this is not something that is consumable, it should be physical, people should know, even the local government authority must be involved. The legislative arm of local government must also know it; it must have been budgeted for. That is why we are concerned, there is no project on ground and they continue deducting the money. Even the variation they are collecting now, it is more, and higher than the price of the project that was not carried out, but has been deducted. Everybody just keeps on coming to the local government to pilfer local government funds under funny names. So, we are saying that NULGE is opposing further deduction from local government allocation by ALGON or their cronies, it must stop; it must end. Money meant for local government should go directly to local government. That is the spirit of financial accountability, and if any contractor claims he has done the project, let the EFCC probe where the money is going to.
President Buhari has been showing serious support for good local government administration. Do you seek his involvement in this?
The President is an anti-corruption crusader; he should come out and probe where the money went to. When you are continuously deducting N100 million, or N200 million from just a state, times 37, do you know how much that money is? And it is going down the drain, nobody is showing interest in it and the governors allowed this impunity to be going on in the system. So, NULGE is averse to this and we are not happy about it. It should be stopped immediately. President Buhari should ensure this is probed.
This is another problem and a twist to what was on ground before. NULGE has been clamouring for local government autonomy believing that the chairmen in the local government should be able to prudently handle local government funds?
Yes, that has been our clamour, but along that, we have also clamoured that there should be anti-corruption agencies to put them on their toes. We are not clamouring for financial autonomy for local government without internal control mechanisms and this one is not even deducted from local government, it is being deducted centrally at source. If the money had been allowed to hit the local government account directly, it would be difficult for them to deduct it. That is why we are clamouring for financial independence of the local government. If the money is allocated and hits the local government account, it will be practically difficult for anybody to deduct the money from the local government account.
But the same people in ALGON are the people that will sit as chairmen of local government. So, what is the difference?
Don’t forget we have the legislative arm; we have the career officers that would need to append their signature. This one, there is no signature of any career officer in it, because career officers have been alleged over time they connive but we said no. Someone just purchased “jankara” black market judgement as a result of connivance of some people and they are continuously deducting the money. When the deduction starts, when is it going to end? What is the value of the contract? Where is the money going to? Who is the person behind this scam going on in the local government? That is why we are clamouring for financial independence. If the money had not been deducted at source and the local government directly funded, it would be difficult for either ALGON or anybody, even NULGE itself, to deep their hands in local government funds.
Don’t you think this development will now justify the position and argument of those who are against local government autonomy and its financial independence?
It cannot justify it; it is even a pointer to why we should give autonomy to local governments. We are clamouring for both the political autonomy and financial autonomy of local government. Once we have a democratically elected political leader in the local government, he would be accountable to the people. Once the conduct of elections to local government is reliable, credible and transparent, the leader that would emerge would be people’s chosen leadership, not a crony or an impostor that somebody can sit down somewhere and give him a directive, which he must obey. We have those who are very competent at the local government level, those who have achieved in their chosen endeavour, who would not take nonsense if we allowed the process to be thorough and they are allowed to man the local government service. For example, if you elect a seasoned journalist as chairman of the local government, you can’t just go to him and say you are ALGON or whatever and want to do a thing like that. You will ask them questions, you also want to know what is happening. Kudos to the FCT that stopped that illegal deduction but what of other states of the federation. So, that is why we are clamouring that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must show serious interest in this and stop all this corruption going on under the name of ALGON.
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