Panel: N11.9bn stolen from LG accounts in Enugu in 8 years

The Judicial Commission of Inquiryon the activities of the 17 local government councils in Enugu State from January 1999 to December 31, 2007 has said that over N11,901,545,490.00 of allocations to local government councils in the state within the period remain unaccounted for.The chairman of the seven-member commission, Justice Anthony Onovo, who said this while presenting the report of the commission to the state governor, Mr Sullivan Chime, at the Government House, Enugu said it was the recommendation of the commission that the money be recovered from those found culpable.Justice Onovo explained that the commission went through the cash books and payment vouchers provided by the 17 local governments and the 39 development centres, scrutinised a total of 50,094 payment vouchers of the local governments from 2006 and inspected and verified the projects executed.He 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.According to the report, while the 17 local government areas received the sum of over N7,759,582,888.37 from June 1999 to April 2002 by direct allocation, the sum of over N38,898,617,109.41 was through the Ministry of Finance for the same period.Justice Onovo said from investigation there was no explanation for the whereabout of the sum of over N3,076,429,603.32 and that allocation to the local governments were usually not in full because they were used by the state for purposes other than those authorised.He also said the commission could not find explanation for the sum of N3,423,475,356.84 which was transferred from the JAAC account into state government accounts.The commission also noticed a lot of impurities in the past with cases of missing public documents, some of which were allegedly burnt and beyond recovery.
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