A former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu, has
described the planned probe of his administration by the current governor of
the state, Olusegun Mimiko, as a sad one.
Agagu said his
administration thrived on transparency.
He stated that Mimiko was the
Secretary to the Government during his tenure and was aware of all transactions
made in the state.
Agagu said, “If it is true that the
desire to probe me is from the Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, I will say it is a
sad commentary on the quality of leadership that is emerging in Nigeria. This
is because Mimiko was my secretary to government when all the tenets, programmes,
rules and regulations on financial matters in Ondo State were being put in
place within the first month I was sworn in as the governor of the state.
“Mimiko was the person who
circularised the financial guidelines that governed our administration throughout
my tenure. Mimiko knows what he did and if he is now trying to cast aspersions
on it, then it is sad that he is doing that.”
The former governor said that Mimiko
knew what he said was wrong and it was sad that for politics sake, he would
want to tell lies.
“Our administration was fashioned
along the path of ultimate transparency. Starting from when resources are
allocated to the state in the beginning of every month. I had a fund allocation
committee, a practice that had never been put in place in the history of Ondo
State.
“Usually, the governor and his
commissioner for finance at the end of every month would sit, look at the
finances of the state and plan how it would be disbursed. In our case, we had a
fund allocation committee that had the governor as its chairman, the Deputy
Governor, Secretary to Government, the Head of Service, the Speaker of the
House of Assembly, the Chief Judge of the State, the Chairman Council of Obas,
the Leader of the Labour Union, and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance
as the secretary; all income allocated to the state are tabled and how it would
be spent is detailed,” Agagu said.
He stated that every Wednesday, the
Commissioner of Information gave details of all transactions that went on at
the SEC where contracts were awarded, to the media.
Agagu added, “No contract above N1m
was awarded in Ondo State without the approval of the SEC, commissioners,
special advisers and all civil servants who are attached to it. Part of the
financial regulations of the state was that an audited account of state
finances, how much came in, how it was spent and how it was audited, is
supposed to be submitted to the state House of Assembly on the Sept. 30 every
year.”
The ex governor said that in the last
three years before he became governor in 2003, no audited account by the state
Auditor-General had been submitted to the House of Assembly.
Agagu stated that he had cleared this
backlog. “If you need to check, the transactions, records of the state house of
assembly would be there. All the five years I was governor, by Sept. 30 every
year, the audited account of the state was placed before the house of assembly
and for five years, there was no query about our transactions,” Agagu said.
He alleged that since the Mimiko
administration got there, not one audited account in three years had been sent
to the state house of assembly.
Credit: Punch
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