Oyo State Assembly Committee on Public Accounts has chided the existence of revenue leakages at the local government level in the state.

The committee questioned the capacity of the leadership of local government areas evidenced by gaps between their expectation of them and reality.

Committee chairman, Honourable Olorunpoto Rahman made this observation during the committee’s scrutiny of the accounts of local government areas, 2021 and 2022 and the auditor general’s report on accounts of the Oyo State Government.

The interaction held at caucus room of the Oyo State House of Assembly saw the leadership of local government areas give accounts of their assets, expenditures, equipment, revenue generation.

Across the presentations of representatives from the 33 local government areas, the committee members decried noncompliance with the dictates of the financial memoranda, noncompliance with rules where local government areas sought approval of estimates from Ministry of Local Government rather than from the State Assembly, errors in the presentations.

To block the leakages and improve their revenue generation, the committee tasked local government administration to adopt digital options, just as it called for more transparency and accountability.

Olorunpoto added that the committee would also be recommending to the State Assembly the need for capacity development in ICT, retraining of local government staff, including training on their compliance with the financial memoranda.

On the relationship between state and local government level, he added that the state Assembly would have a conversation with the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters to address the gaps. (Nigerian Tribune)

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