Challenges of Local Government Administration in Kogi

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WALE IBRAHIM examines the various challenges in administering the local government councils in Kogi State

Local government administration is statutorily recognised as third tier of government in Nigeria to bring governance to the people at grassroots level and bring about the much desired development to rural communities.

The creation of 774 local government councils is not out of place, but in line with 1976 local government reforms objectives. The reforms stipulated roles, functions and responsibility for local government councils in their locations. However the question agitating the minds of observers is: why is it that local government councils can no longer perform their statutory functions?

With the return to democracy and civilian administration in 1999, local government administration has become appendages of some state governments in Nigeria, which introduced series of policies that rendered local government administration ineffective.

The councils also became a conduit pipe to siphon tax payers’ money as those saddled with responsibilities in local concils became millionaires as there was no meaningful development to show for the monthly allocation from the federal purse.

Kogi State is not an exception to the scenario painted above, especially, during the oil boom between 1999 and 2007, when huge funds were allocated to local councils without corresponding development in the 774 local government areas in the country as a result of corruption.

A time there was when some state governments had joint accounts with local councils with a pledge to use the money for the development of councils, a promise that never saw the light of the day.

A typical example of this was Kwara State, where councils were held hostage for a long time. Although the approach to running local councils differs from state to state, but the situation was characterised by inability to discharge their statutory responsibilities of paying primary school teachers as well as staff salary and have adopted percent salary payment which has generated untold hardship on local government workers in the state.

In Kogi State, which was not an exception, apparently worried by the inability of the state government to pay workers’ salary, the state governor, Captain Idris Wada during his working tour of Ogori-Magogo Local Government headquarters, Akpafa, ordered all council chairmen to immediately commence the payment of full salary to workers in all the 21 local councils of the state

The council workers had welcomed Wada to Ogori/Magongo council with placards bearing different inscriptions like: “Captain Idris Wada save our soul, we are dying”; “No Salary for Months”; “Council Chairmen Have Refused to Pay us Our Salary”; and “Enough of 30 Per Cent Salary Payment.”

This, National Mirror gathered, did not go down well with Captain Wada. The situation was not only pathetic, but also embarrassing, such that the governor, who was obviously disturbed by the ordeal of the local council staff ordered council chairmen in the 21 councils to pay full salary immediately in the course of his speech before he left the council.

Prior to this sad encounter, Wada had set up a committee of inquiry to look into the mess in the councils under the defunct council chairmen who were sent packing by a Koton Karfe High Court judgment in December 2014, which many described as “good riddance to bad rubbish.”

The Akpafa episode was a reflection of the predicament of most of the councils’ employees in the state. And like any other council in the country, the problems of local government administration in Kogi State are numerous.

Top on the list of these challenges is inadequate funding of the local councils and it has no doubt crippled the activities of the third tier of government in the state.

As matter of fact, inadequate funding is one problem that has brought the leadership of the respective councils on collision course with the workers across the country. The present scenario in Kogi State has also continued to impede good governance in that tier of administration; as it has become one problem that is giving Governor Wada sleepless nights.

The challenges confronting the councils are so enormous and this has led to critics of the present administration capitalizing on these challenges to deride the government as non performer. The revelations form the committee set up by Wada were tarling and mind-boggling, as It was established that most of the councils in the state have been carrying more loads than they can ordinarily shoulder.

Apart from the alleged financial recklessness of some of the former elected councils’ chairmen, many of the councils, according to the committee’s investigations, are over-staffed; and as if that was not enough, to compound their problems, other serious challenge is the issue of minimum wage which its implementation has continued to raise dust among councils’ employees, as it on still been put on hold due to paucity of fund. Investigations revealed that the statutory allocation accruing to the state and the 21 local councils ranges between N3.3 and N3.7 billion monthly.

lt was also discovered that the entire allocation due to the councils do not get to the councils because of what is known as ‘statutory deductions’ for other sectors. A competent source confided in National Mirror that it is after the statutory deductions are made that the balance is shared in line with laid down indices.

The statutory deductions include the primary school salary paid through the state Universal Education board, SUBEB, one per cent for Local Government Service Commission, one per cent to service the Joint Allocation Account, JAC, and five per cent for traditional council and one per sent to the state university.

All these, it was learnt, are essential statutory deductions on first-line-charge. National Mirror checks also revealed that in some of the councils, there are other deductions that are often made to meet other obligations; among which about 18 councils have outstanding commitments to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS.

Others includes: payment to former political office holders, who secured court orders to that effect; common projects, which took off in July and Cost of Transaction, CoT; and deduction for vehicles, cars and motorbikes, purchased by the councils from a joint pool, including deductions to meet pension obligations.

It was gathered that some councils that were indebted to FIRS had to pay about N500,000 monthly, deductable from source.

The consequence is that these deductions further deplete the amount accruing to the concerned council which led to lack of meaningful development at grass root level. It was also revealed that the sources of funds to local councils are fixed.

They are statutory allocation, Value Added Tax, VAT, Excess Crude and SURE-P. VAT and SURE-P are not subject to any form of deduction. Excess Crude is no longer applicable since the removal of fuel subsidy. It now comes as SURE-P funds which are targeted at infrastructural development.

And with the fall in oil price in the international market, the SURE-P fund is worse off, with serious consequences on the councils’ projects.

Other reasons why local councils could not perform their functions is that after the final amounts are released to the councils, there are some internally approved deductions necessary for the smooth running of the councils. These include: salaries, security votes and departmental imprest.

These too are said to be on first-line-charge; so with all these deductions from what accrues to the councils, coupled with alleged sharp practices by some of the then council chairmen, it become practically impossible to initiate any projects at the third tier of government.

Ainoko explained that the continued short-fall in allocation from the federation account is hampering governance at the third tier of government in the state, stressing further that the story in the Confluence State is the same sad tale in about 30 states in the country.

He pointed out that the situation in Kogi State is even better than some other states, because somemething is being paid as salary at the end of every month; even though it is being paid on pro-rata basis.

The state Deputy Governor, Yomi Awoniyi, disclosed that the government is worried about the continued shortfall in the funds accruing to the councils, lamenting that there was no iota of the truth in the allegation making round that the state government was tampering with councils’ fund.

Describing the allegation as unfounded, Awoniyi stated that it was the figment of the imagination of those who are bent on discrediting the administration of Captain Wada. President of Kogi State chapter of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Comrade Tom Abutu, denied of any extraneous deductions, arguing that many of the councils are carrying more loads than they can bear.

He called on the state government to find a way of ameliorating the hardship being faced by his members, advising council leaders to cut down wastages in the system. Abutu lamented the high cost of governance at local government level, saying that even with the absence of political appointees at the councils in the state, nothing seems to have changed.

He noted that money accruing to the various councils have continued to dwindle on a monthly basis, saying the essence of Joint Account Committee, JAC, is to enable the state augment what accrues to the councils. He said: “Whatever the state gets as internally generated revenue, IGR, it gives the councils a certain percentage.”

An employee of one of the councils, Abayomi Daramola, said the situation was so bad that most of the councils under the former chairmen could not pay their employees, claiming short fall in revenue as reason.

But things seem to have relatively changed when the supervising ministry took the bull by the horn and effect some changes under the directive of the state government. Daramola added: “At least, we now take home something at the end of the month, unlike before. We hope for improvement as time passes-by.”

Determined to find a lasting solution to the litany of problems confronting the council, the state government had ordered an audit of workers in the various councils. It is also making frantic efforts to ensure that what goes to SUBEB monthly is not over-bloated. The measure was instrumental to the auditing of teachers in the state recently.

With these revelations, experts posited that for a lasting solution to the challenges facing the councils in the state, statutory allocation and deductions at the centre must be reviewed for life to return to the councils in the country, stressing that the state government too has to initiate moves to improve internally generated revenue at the council level to improve the fund accruing to the third tier of government.

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