Date Published: 02/18/10

Group tackles Sylva, Bayelsa Governor

A RELATIVELY new civil society group in Bayelsa State, the Niger Delta Development Monitoring and Corporate Watch (NIDDEMCOW)  has  taken  on the  state Governor,  Timipre  Sylva, alleging  that  he  has not  been  delivering  on  his  promises.

While swearing-in members of his cabinet, Sylva had directed them to always render quarterly account of their stewardship to the electorate. This, in the governor's thinking, was aimed at enshrining accountability and transparency in the affairs of the state.

But the Executive Director of the group, Mr. Nengi James, claimed in a statement on Thursday that nothing of such was taking place in the oil and gas rich state.

''It is based on this premise that the Commissioner for Finance and Budget, Dr. Sylva Opuala Charles, is being called upon to make  public the present financial position of the state in line with the wishes and aspiration of the citizens'', Mr. James said.

According to the group, ''the people of Bayelsa are being kept in the dark on the allocations and revenue accruing to the state government vis-à-vis loans and government expenditure. This scenario has bred suspicion and contempt by a cross section of the people''.   

The group is claiming that the people want to know how much the state has borrowed from financial institutions to fund projects, and how much has been paid as well as the balance and interest rate. Similarly, the true amount owed contractors should also be made public.

* Another burning issue begging for clarification is the sale of government properties notably the Opolo commissioners’ quarters, the House of Assembly quarters and others. How was the financial transaction carried out?

* They believe that the sale of these houses is unwarranted, illegal, null and void, and subject to revocation because it has no legal backing whatsoever bearing in mind that the state government Commercialization and Privatization Bill is still under debate in the state House of Assembly,  

The group said they will support Bayelsa citizens to rise up and challenge the ''arbitrary mortgaging'' of their common wealth without appropriate measures in place to ensure that more of such houses are built to replace the sold ones.

Most ministries like Finance and Budget, Capital City Development Authority (CCDA) and others are allegedly engaging the services of private consultants in carrying out its activities.

''This act is most questionable and fraudulent and must be jettison because the civil service has all the manpower necessary to handle most of these duplicated consultancy services. However, consultancy must only be required in highly technical matters'', the group said.

They therefore, want the legislative arm of the state government to extend their oversight function to ministries involved in recruiting consultants with the view to meting out appropriate sanctions because of the volume of financial wastage and leakages it has cause tax payers.