Several overseers of various Neighbourhood Democratic Councils across the country have been terminated for financial irregularities. This is according to Chairman of the Local Government Commission, Julius Faeber.
According to Faeber, the commission has conducted several audits of these NDCs where financial irregularities were found and also this was based on complaints from residents. He made it known, the commission is committed to transparency and it must start from the Regional Level.
“At the Mora/Parika NDC we had some violation of the act in terms of policy. In that case the overseer was dismissed, at Charity/Urasara, financial irregularities, the overseer was dismissed at Matakai again financial irregularities the overseer was dismissed again. For the Woodland/ Bel Air NDC also financial irregularities and in that case the over was again dismissed,” the Chairman told MTV News Update.
Also, several overseers were given warnings for breaching the Local Government Commission Act. These officials are tasked with executing their duties in an appropriate manner.
There are 70 NDCs currently and the overseers head the administrative arm and carry out the day to day functions of the NDCs.
The LGC Chairman also highlighted there are several audits still to be completed but the commission is a bit short of staffed.
“We have some other audits that are presently ongoing at the Better Hope/ LBI NDC et cetera. We have a lot of work being done by our audit department but one of the problem we are face with is the limited amount of staff that we have and the work we would like to have done is not being done the way we would like it to happen,” he said.
However, he is hopeful that the commission can obtain more staff in the future.
The Local Government Commission plays a role in ensuring that its policies and programmes are not retarded by obstructionism, poor implementation, the absence of professionalism or by disputes between and within local government bodies.
