They also alleged that the council boss engages in illegal procurement, thereby mortgaging the procurement laws.
In a swift reaction, the Council Chairman disclosed that he chose not to authorize their salaries as they sit on official files that they ought to treat.
“I decided not to authorize because when files gets to their hands, they hide them. You can enter the Secretariat and see the projects that I am doing. When files gets to their hands, they hide them”, disclosing that he had told the governor of plans to Commission the remodeled office complex in December this year.
He noted that the file sent to them to prepare voucher has been hidden making it impossible to pay the contractor some part of the money for the project.
“They are hiding the file, let them bring out the file, prepare the voucher so they can issue the cheque and I will also authorize their salaries”, insisting that the strike should go on so the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, would get wind of it so those engaged in the business hiding files could be called to order and the files released.
He also accused them of poor attitude to work, “Most of the projects you are seeing in that council when you ask them to document, it takes them between two to three months to document. I will still be the one to supervise them before they can do proper documentation.
“While that is on, I will go out to look for money to be doing projects. My money that are hanging in that council is up to N5 million and that is why you are seeing the development and beauty in the council’s Secretariat”.
On the allegation levelled on him of engaging in procurement irregularities, he said: “Is there anything like irregular procurement? Are mine a purchasing officer that will go and procure something? So, how can I go and procure something when I am not a purchasing officer”.
He disclosed that the variation on the contract that the council was asked to do has been done, lamenting that over two to three weeks now, they have not been able to produce the voucher.
According to him, if they find out that you want to leave office, they fustrate us as politicians and that has been their character and they look for avenues to collect money from contractors, which I will not allow anybody to embarrass the council.
He alleged further that a project which has been completed since January at the secretariat, the voucher has not been prepared, “My own personal money inside I have not been able to collect it because I added my money so that we can pay the contractor.
“They tell you that file is missing. They will raise a new file and it will miss again after sometime. The Secretariat that we are building is what is causing the problem now, the contractor brought a variation and we called on the quantity surveyor to go and look at the variation. We have met at exco and it has been approved but for them to prepare the voucher, is a problem”, he said.
He called on the workers to do the right thing in order for their salaries to be authorized.
