Urge FG to disburse allocations to councils
Stakeholders in the local council administration in the Southeast on Wednesday decried what they described as non-compliance with budget planning, legislation and execution processes at the third tier of government in the zone, condemning the non-implementation of the local council financial autonomy.
They stated that it was a criminal offence to circumvent councils’ allocations by channeling them directly to the state governments, which is at variance with last year’s declarative order by the Supreme Court.
They also flayed successive council chiefs for increasingly abandoning projects in their localities, estimated at N3 trillion. The stakeholders included the Council chiefs of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
They also urged close monitoring of Council funds management in the Southeast. Speaking at the Literacy and Budget Accountability for the LGAs, organised by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room in partnership with Citizenship Centre for Integrated Development and Social Rights (CCIDESOR), and supported by the United Kingdom (UK) Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), CCIDESOR’s Executive Director, Dr Emeka Ononamadu, lamented the way council budgets are neglected.
According to him, it leads to abandonment of projects and non-management of resources. Ononamadu said he and other stakeholders had followed the local council system for years, regretting that many councils spent without observing budget processes, reminding that it was a criminal offence to spend without capturing the financial incomes and expenditures, via legislative processes at the local levels.
Also, the CCIDESOR Programmes Coordinator, Richard Nwamadi, stressed the need to monitor incomes and expenditures at that level, and the need for the anti-graft agencies to widen their nets to cover LGAs.
“Participants resolved that all stakeholders must prioritise continuous economic literacy programmes to empower LGA staff, civil society, and citizens to monitor, engage, and hold leaders accountable.
“Local governments should institutionalise transparent budget processes—ensuring citizens’ inputs from planning to implementation, while guaranteeing periodic public disclosure of revenue and expenditure,” the stakeholders resolved at the meeting.
They continued: “Resources at the local level must be prudently applied to projects and services that directly impact communities, with clear accountability mechanisms to track progress and prevent leakages.”
“Urgent efforts must be made to restore the functionality of LGAs by strengthening administrative, financial, and service-delivery capacities.
“Citizens and the other organised groups must actively play their roles as watchdogs, using transparency tools to demand accountability and improve governance outcomes.
“Stakeholders should advocate fair redistribution of LGA revenues, with emphasis on reinvestment in community-level projects that stimulate local economies and reduce the impact of national economic challenges.”
They advised that training, covering Abia, Enugu, and Imo States, should be institutionalised across all LGAs in the South-East region and beyond, to create a culture of accountability and strengthen grassroots governance nationwide.
In addition, they want the Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC), which they described as a creation of the military constitution, expunged from the Constitution, as it has done more harm than good to the local government system.
“The Finance & General Purposes Committee (F&GPC) of the Local Government should be streamlined and made more active to ensure due process in procurement and expenses in the LGAs.
“The database for needs assessment of local governments, including budgets, procurement and accounts, should be computerised for optimal performance.
“Copies of local government budgets should be made open and more accessible to citizens and staff as enshrined in the Freedom of Information Act, for accountability and citizens’ regular project monitoring,” they charged.
