INVESTIGATION: Call to Publish the Verified Audited Financial Transactions of Oyi Local Government Area for the Year 2019

As part of the oversight functions of the Anambra State House of Assembly Committee on public accounts, designed to encourage good public accounting system, and living up their oversight responsibilities, the Anambra Pro-Democracy Movement APDM, a group of good governance and transparency advocates, hereby request the pleasure of the Anambra State House of Assembly Committee on Local Government, Chieftaincy and Town Union Matters to make available in the public domain the Oyi LGA financial transactions for the year 2019.

We appreciate the efforts of the Anambra State House of Assembly, most especially the committee on public accounts who are doing a thorough job towards ensuring a noticeable improvement in the financial transactions of local governments council areas, and its profound effort to guide all the local government councils in their financial activities in accordance with the law.

This clarion call became neccessary not to witch-hunt anybody, but to avail the good people of Oyi local government area a detailed information on how their commonwealth is being managed by the Transition committee chairman Engr. Nnamdi Nwadiogbu. The citizens demand to know how the accrued financial allocations to the council were deployed to use, and what purposes. We need to be provided records of all the capital projects it executed during the year under review as well as documents that enabled them to carry out their responsibility, if at all they are alive to their responsibilities.

The house committee on public accounts for local governments is hereby urged to publish the audited accounts of the Oyi local government area of the state for 2019 to public domain for the people of the council area to peruse.This, we strongly believe will help to educate, inform and enlighten the good people of Oyi LGA on how the current administration is handling their common patrimony. It would also guide government authorities, in enhancing public financial accountability in Anambra State.

The importance of sound and effective audit of the finance of local governments cannot be over stressed. Politics of local government budgeting; Financial manipulation in the local government system is at alarming rate since the advent of caretaker committee style of governance, and should be put under control. The grand corruption, financial crimes and fraudulent activities going on in the local government areas have regretably retarded the growth and development of Anambra state. There is a law on the Monitoring of Revenue and Allocation to Local Government, the Act 2005. Governors, state accountant generals, chairmen of local governments and their treasurers can only ignore the law to their peril.

APDM has taken the war against corruption and flagrant disregard for the financial rules and ethics of governance to the local government level, where the governors have behaved largely as demigods and untouchables. As they say, where there is no law there is no sin!

Comr Chuma-Odili Harris, Ph.D
Convener, Anambra Pro-Democracy Movement APDM