By Yinka Adeniran, Ibadan
The ongoing crisis rocking councils in Oyo State on Monday took a new twist, as the House of Assembly alleged that it had uncovered sharp practices in the conduct of the sacked council bosses.
The lawmakers alleged that there were duplication of projects, outrageous contract sums and abandonment of projects between May 2018 and June 2019.
The discoveries were part of the findings of the House Ad hoc Committee set up to review and investigate the activities of the local governments (LGs)and local council development areas (LCDAs) in the year under review.
The report of the committee was presented at the plenary by Mr. Olusegun Popoola.
According to the report, the committee discovered that some programmes and projects worth millions of naira executed by the 33 LGs and 35 LCDAs had the same titles with the same amount and were repeatedly captured in the expenditure.
The report also noted that expenses incurred by the authorities of the councils for the clearing and evacuation of refuse were outrageous, while their reports showed that there were no ongoing projects in their councils.
The Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin, alleged that it was unfortunate that the chairmen abused their offices by inflating project costs, duplicating them as well as embarking on projects that did not have direct impact on the populace.
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He said: “Posterity will not judge us right if we fail to perform our oversight duty of serving as watchdogs and monitoring of the activities of the local governments and local council development areas. We are determined to work with Governor Seyi Makinde towards sanitising the activities of the local councils.
“We are poised to put in place an efficient and effective local council system that not only improves the system but also engenders robust and impactful development at the local and community levels.”
Other lawmakers frowned at the activities of the sacked council chairmen.
While announcing the setting up of another committee to look into the report, the House resolved, among others, to sanction “any chairman in this dispensation who is found guilty of project duplication and cost inflation.”
The committee called on the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters to conduct technical audit of the equipment bought in the LGs and LCDAs within the year under review.
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