Abia State Deputy Governor, Engr. Ikechukwu Lekwachi Emetu, FNSE, has enjoined Heads of Service and other key Officers in the financial management of the local government to follow all laid down procedures in the Financial Memoranda, Fiscal Responsibility Act, the State Public Procurement Act, and other extant rules and financial regulations to obviate any form of misapplication of funds that may tend toward corruption.
Emetu stated this during a 3-day seminar/workshop for financial managers of the local government organised by Samuk Media Life Ventures in conjunction with the Local Government Service Commission at Bishop Anthony Nwedo Pastoral Centre, Umuahia.
“With the ongoing transformation and reforms in the State Public Service, which only an improved workforce can contend with, the Governor has placed a high premium on the training and retraining of the workforce to ensure greater output and achieve efficiency in all the facets of the State Service including the Local Government”, Deputy Governor Emetu stated.
He commended the Local Government Service Commission for faithfully keeping to one of its core mandates of improving the manpower development of the Local Government Service in the State, which is the vision of His Excellency, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti’s administration.
He charged the participants to make accountability and transparency their watchword in line with the financial management Creed of the State Governor who has severally said that all financial managers of State and Local Government must be held accountable for their actions or inactions.
Earlier in her address, the Permanent Secretary, of the Local Government Service Commission, Princess Ezinne Judith Ngwakwe Ph.D, said that the Commission tailored the seminar/workshop to ensure that all strata of staff were affected for optimum performance in the service.
“We have carried the workers through the application of Public Service Rules, Local Government Administration, and Sustainable Community Development, Repositioning the Local Government Service Commission through Administrative Processes, Procedures, Effective Communication and Ethical Conducts: effective Payroll and Electronic Fraud Control Techniques: The Application of Due Process, Accountability and Anti-Corruption in the Local Government, among others”.
She thanked Governor Otti for enhancing and sharpening the skills of the staff of the Commission through on-the-job training and assured that the benefits of these workshops will not go unnoticed.
The 3-day seminar/workshop has Heads of Service, Heads of Budget and Planning, Treasurers, and Auditors drawn from the 17 Local Government Areas of the State.
Sir Cyril Chukwudi Eke Mba, KSJI
Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor of Abia State
September 11, 2024.
