By Onwa Ekor
The Cross River House of Assembly has deliberated on the audited accounts of Ogoja, Yala, Bekwarra, Obudu and Obanliku local government councils for the year ended December 31 2020.
The House had earlier recieved the report of the audited accounts of the 18 local government councils for 2020 from the Auditor General for Local Government, Dr Oden Eni, in pursuant to the powers conferred on him by Section 125 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered) and section 4(3) of the Cross River Audit Law of 2004.
After its acceptance as a working document of the House, the report was referred to the House Committee on Public Accounts for consideration and to report back to the House.
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the House and Member representing Yala 1 State Constituency, Hon Odey Brian, disclosed that his Committee called for written responses from the local government councils on all queried items as well as a Public Hearing for oral presentation of facts and figures.
The House, after deliberating on the report of the Public Accounts Committee, adopted its recommendations as resolutions of the House.
From the resolutions, the House urged Ogoja local government council to, amongst other things, initiate result- oriented programmes, as well as invest in agriculture to boost its poor performance profile to augment funding from the Federation Accounts in order to foster grassroots development and Youths empowerment.
Similarly, the management of Yala local government council was urged to be more proactive in revenue generation and punish erring staff to avoid a reoccurrence of low Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as well as improve its security operations towards ensuring lasting peace in the area.
The resolution also called on Bekwarra local government council to ensure that more funds from its total receipts are applied to Capital Projects that will impact positively on the citizens while Obudu Council was directed to explore fertile ground to generate revenue in view of its status as the commercial nerve center of the Northern Senatorial District of the State.
In the same vein, the House called on Obanliku Council to overhaul the existing machinery for revenue generation by ensuring that all revenue is paid into the Council’s revenue accounts as prescribed in the financial memoranda.
The Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Elvert Ayambem, expressed appreciation to the Public Accounts Committee for a thorough job while declaring that the Commitee’s recommendations have become the resolution of the House.
