COMMISSIONERS WORST OFF UNDER LALONG

COMMISSIONERS WORST OFF UNDER LALONG

By, Shabul Mazadu 

 

Since the inception of the Fourth Republic, commissioners in Plateau State never had it excessively tough to run their ministries and to support those seeking their help as under the Simon Bako Lalong administration. 

Investigation by THE BEACON revealed that since 2015 to date most of the commissioners hardly get overheads to run their ministries, which pundits opine that it could be by virtue of the governor's firm belief that the ministries should generate revenues for themselves. It would be recalled that in 2017 when the Governor marked his second year in office while responding to questions from journalists on why government ministries were not given overheads, he said, "The Governor has no overhead, not only the ministries. We all agreed to manage what we are getting, salary is our priority. We cannot stop payment of salary. We must make sacrifice, this is not the time for overhead. They should also work toward generating revenue to take care of their needs. That is not to say we abandoned the ministries."

Some journalists who were given Congratulatory advert for Dr. Aisha Buhari when she backed an honorary doctorate award in South Korea in June 2018, said they have not been paid by the Ministry of Information which gave the advert till date. And that the nonpayment is causing ripples with their employers, that is the newspaper they are working for. When contacted on the matter since 2018 to date, the ministry keeps saying there is no money to pay. And that several memos written are yet to get adequate attention. 

Some faithful of the All Progressives Congress (APC) spoken to by THE BEACON lamented that the commissioners are no go areas for them in times of need as they are only given their salaries which sometimes they use to run their offices. 

Pundits faulted the non issuance of overheads to most ministries saying the wage of a worker is for his and his family's up keep and not for government's function. Furthermore, they added that ministries will be incapacitated when overheads are not given. And that governments are supposed to make provisions via overheads to assist members of the public with small financial problems when they approached them. Part of the causes of the dwindling well wish of Governor Lalong in the state they went on, is the inability of the public to find assistance from the ministries such as little contracts, adverts and small financial assistance due to lack of deliberate policy of his administration in that regard.