Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe state has said the Local Governments Joint Account has over N6.7billion yet to be accessed for execution of
projects at the grassroots level.
He made the assertion yesterday while declaring open a two day retreat for local government chairmen, supervisory councillors, directors of
personnel and other senior officers in the state.
With a theme Improving Goal Setting Processes in Local Governments in Yobe State, organised in collaboration with Superlative Consults, the retreat was aimed at enhancing the capacity of the local government staff to be more productive.
“This retreat is apt and timely due to the fact that this is a step taken towards addressing the challenges being faced by the local governments as third tier of government in service delivery as well as in entrenchment of international best practice in governance at that level,” he said.
The governor further informed the participants that, it has made it mandatory for all the local governments to contribute N10million monthly
in order to cater for gratuities and pension of local governments ’ retirees.
Similarly, Blueprint learnt, approval has been granted for the establishment of Budget and Planning Department at all the local governments for accountability, transparency and probity.
Earlier in his remarks, the Managing Director of Superlative Consults, Dr. Abatcha Deribe, said the goal setting retreat would increase value and revenue to the state because they have
carefully selected some academics that would give lectures on different
topics.
Prof. Haruna Dlakwa, Prof. Paul Mbaya among others were the resource persons expected to deliver papers at the retreat.
A total of over 560 participants drawn across the 17 local government councils of the state were in attendance.
