In this interview, Alhaji Abu Danmalam Karofi, permanent secretary, department of local government and chieftaincy affairs, Katsina State, highlights the benefits of state/local governments joint account formula. (Excerpts):-
You have been in the vanguard of this administration’s local government reformation in Katsina. How has the task been?
So far so good. Infact when we took over running of the local government through the department of local government and chieftaincy affairs, we encountered a lot of problems. When the previous elected local government administrators vacated office and caretakers appointed to take over, we met a lot of problems. Local governments then could not pay salaries, pension arrears and a lot of liabilities, so his excellency the executive governor had to direct us to do something in order to solve the problem. That has taken us at least six months to draw up measures for sanitising the system. Putting all checks and relevant regulatory provisions, we started operating the system via joint account, which is prudently being managed.
What do you hope to achieve out of the reforms?
Well, basically our vision is to sanitise local government system in the state and make them operate very well. We want to see them transformed into urban and semi-urban centres with all the necessary infrastructure in place, to reduce, rural-urban migration. And that is achievable when jobs are created in the rural areas through the introduction of cottage industries and exploration of other sectors, like fishing, farming etc and also to allow grassroot participation in the development of their areas educationally and otherwise through our departments.
To what extent would you say the system is recording success?
So far the system has worked well with our local governments. We do not have any problem running the system. Infact when our monies were withheld, we stayed for four months running the system without asking for a kobo from anybody. That is how the newly-created local governments remained effectively operational until they were suspended lately. Infact hardly will an outsider make any difference between the old and new local governments except through the secretariat. The new LGs have served a purpose of importing development to the rural areas, I assure you our rural areas will in the next ten years be an Island of itself because of real transformation. One good thing is that the administration has never shown interest in a kobo accrued from the joint account unlike other states where local government fund is mixed with state fund in running the affairs of the state. And let me tell you, no achievements could be realised without this joint account system because anytime the money is released about 60-70% goes to statutory payments and deductions. Its that 30-40% left that is being managed to execute projects. Despite that, as I’m talking to you now, we have surplus money in our account which is now getting to 8 billion naira. In the past, when local governments received allocations direct from the federation account, it was not easy to control them or to inject some sanity in them. I’m sure no local government received less than 1 billion naira for the past three years. But go and assess the impact. They have had all the money, and opportunity to develop their people but I’m sure I will in the overall rate the system as a failure. Do you think it will change now if the money is allocated to them directly? But it is not our responsibility to say whether this money would be released to them or not, it is the responsibility of government. If government wants this money released to them, so be it. But I assure you that nothing will be achieved without effective control and that can only be realised with an honest and prudent leadership.
In essence you are saying the recent clamour for direct allocation to local government could not be justified in terms of meeting the yearnings and aspirations of the people?
In a way yes! Though I can only talk of my state since I will not have known all that is obtained in other states. But on the whole I don’t think giving local governments a free hand to expend funds will have justifiable impact on rural areas, because as I have said, we have seen before, that it’s not easy to effectively control this administrators when they received money directly. Infact when you call them for a meeting, half of them don’t attend. But the issue is a constitutional matter which we could not challenge. Personally I don’t think giving them monies directly will help the system. If you compare the amount of money received previously with the level of achievements recorded then. Like I said, here in Katsina 60-70% goes to the payment of salaries, pensions and other statutory deductions and only 30-40% is managed for developments and savings. Mind you, we have dwindling oil prices in the international market. There was a time it cost $10-20 per barrel. Suppose it comes down, it will affect their allocation and by the time local government allocation could only pay salary and other legal deductions, it means there’s no money for development and the purpose of the whole local government system would be defeated.
But the reforms are feared to be making the LGs redundant and incapable of meeting the yearnings and aspirations of the electorate. How would you justify this fear in terms of the spending limit imposed on the local governments?
I have said it several times that the issue is not about spending limit and whoever tells you that, is a liar. The only thing, like in our state, after releasing their monies for salary and other payments, we realise 1 million naira for upkeep and ask them to initiate projects in their domains. They submit their proposals to us which we vet and sometimes reduce the cost to a reasonable level which we pass to the deputy governor for approval. Once it is approved, we release 50% of the money to them and upon completion and standard inspection by our team of inspectors, we issue a certificate and release the remaining amount to them. That’s how we’ve been operating and is working very well and the people are happy. These LGs, even if you give them 50 million monthly, they will spend it and not half of the commensurate achievement could be seen. Operating in this manner is the best way but it’s a very hectic system and can only succeed with people who are prudent.
The way you have been running local governments have attracted criticisms and attacks. What impact do you think that you too have made so far?
Yes, we have been receiving criticisms, insults, threats and I told people in the state that, that will never change me, I’m equal to the task. God is my protector and wherever I go I tell them I am doing my best because I am a human being and one day God will ask me why I am receiving salary but not doing what I am supposed to do. One thing I have noticed is that more than 70% of the local government workforces have understood me, and they co-operate with me because we took time explaining to them our mission. Also (NULGE) has understood me, though I know some of them right now are very hostile, abusing and blackmailing me. At least the rural people are happy, so I am also happy.
What are those principles that you had to compromise to make the system work?
Like I told you running a LG system like this in a political era is very difficult. Sometimes we have to compromise because if you want a system to work you have to relax the rules but above all 80-90% of it we have succeeded. Even with this issue of compromise, there are things that I will never compromise because any issue that relates to misuse of public funds or mismanagement, I will never compromise it.
What then were the problems encountered in running the system?
Well the problems are numerous – one, lack of understanding which has overtime being diminishing. Two, over-staffing of the local government which in all honesty you cannot flush the people out because there is no ready industries to absorb them in the state. Thirdly, and most importantly is the over taxing of the system by some federal agencies. Local governments take care of most of the security operatives in the country most especially the police. You find it’s the local government that takes care of their housing and other things which normally is not the responsibility of this local government. So I think the federal government should please provide enough fund for them to work effectively without over burdening the local governments. That’s why sometime I find course to defend the local governments in terms of certain expenditure and how they are being expended. I remember sometime a newspaper published billions of naira received by the local government but without giving details on how much of it goes to salary and other emoluments that are authorised. Thus giving the impression that it is the entire money that is embezzled while actually it’s just 30-40% of it that is being saved for development and even catering for other federal government agencies.
But there are accusations that you have spent most of this LG money to finance 2003 Election and later raised illegal vouchers to cover up. How true are they?
You see I will rather shelve political issues because I am purely a civil servant. I heard these accusations, but let me tell you, states and local governments have a joint responsibility to provide security vehicles and other logistics during elections.
In local government inspectorate, there is a department we call common services dept. (CSD) where we incur expenditure for common services like purchase of vehicles and other logistics. Sometimes we incur these expenditure centrally and ask local governments to update their records or raise vouchers to cover up. Its not faking and there is nothing illegal about this. Its normal. No central expenditure of a kobo is incurred without the express approval and consent of the local government chairmen. And why this is done is because, when you ask the local governments to do it directly, they may end up doing different things. There was a time they were asked to purchase vehicles and we later detected some who purchased old vehicles and refurbished them.
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