The Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up to look into the activities of the 17 local government councils in Enugu State from January 1999 to December 31, 2007 yesterday, disclosed that over N11 billion (N11,901,545,490.00) of allocations to local government councils in the state within the period were unaccounted for.
Chairman of the seven member commission, Hon. Justice Anthony Onovo made the disclosure while presenting the report of the Commission to the state governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime at the Government House, Enugu.
He stated that it was the recommendation of the Commission that the sum be recovered from the people responsible, adding that the Commission went through the cash books and payment vouchers provided by the 17 local governments and the 39 development centers, and also scrutinised a total of 50,094 payment vouchers of the local governments from the year 2006, and inspected and verified projects executed.
Onovo, however noted that the Commission was unable to receive any single document relating to allocation of revenue to the local governments in the state out of the federation account for any part of the period under review from any officer, past or present in the state.
Treasurers that served in four development centres – Nsukka East, Ezeagu North, South, and West, he said, up till the point of submitting the reports, were yet to fully submit their cash books and payment vouchers as demanded by the Commission at its inauguration.
The committee chairman further observed that the total amount received by the local government is over seventy nine billion naira (N79,442,748,374.49); made up of over seven billion naira (N7,759,582,888.37), direct payment to the council and over seventy-one billion naira (N71,683,163,165,483.12), allocation paid to the council through the ministry of finance.