Nasarawa to Audit Accounts of 13 LGAs

Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia

The Nasarawa State Government has announced that it would carry out forensic audit and verification across the 13 Local Government Areas in the state to fish out ghost workers and roll back the tide of corruption in its local government administration.

The State Commissioner for Local Government, Rural Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Yusuf Sarki, disclosed this in an interaction with journalists yesterday in Lafia.

Sarki said the forensic audit became necessary in view of recent inability of the councils to pay their staff salary as well as pensioners.

He said: “Group of persons are planning to short change the government and pensioners by replacing the dead and retired officers with different people without the approval of the authority in charge of the councils.”

He explained that the state government was not responsible for the non-payment of local government staff, noting that the state government had often time augmented the councils’ allocation.

The commissioner added that the ministry, as a supervising ministry, was not responsible for any deduction from the local governments’ fund.

He said: “Because this data capture screening will not solve the problem, pensioners are dying while others are maneuvering their way to replace them thereby making the wage bill to rise. Insincerity of the people is responsible for this problem.”

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