* We won’t shield any official – Govt
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commis s i o n (EFCC) has
arrested some senior officials of the Abia State Ministry of
Finance over allegations of corruption and abuse of office. They
were taken to the Port Harcourt office of the commission.
The officials were picked following a petition by a Commissioner
in the State Civil Service Commission, Mr Guy Okite. Okite, had
alleged in the petition that Mrs Charity Ukonu, a staff of the
payroll department of the state Ministry of Finance, was for three
years paying him 30 per cent of his legitimate salary. He further
stated that he was constrained to involve the anti-graft agency
because all administrative procedure taken to make her pay him
yielded no positive result.
Part of the petition reads: “In trying to carry out this
legitimate duty charged on me by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria
and upon receiving several complaints from various civil servants
against one Mrs. Charity Ukonu of the Audit Department of the Abia
State Civil Service who uses her office as a member of a purported
State Salary Enhancement and Audit Committee to defraud, embezzle
and to steal monies from the State/Public funds designated for
salaries.
This, she does by making spurious inclusions to salaries of her
proxies and cronies who make returns of the surplus of the salaries
to her.” According to him, Mrs Ukonu’s pays herself and receives
double and/or multiple salaries from Abia State Government in
various ministries and departments. Okite’s petition provided
evidence of multiple salaries for herself and cronies with bank
details, the ministries and departments, amount and month
involved.
“On the same 09/06/2016 Mrs. Charity Ukonu as a civil servant
received a huge and questionable sum of N 2,050,000.00 (Two million
and fifty thousand naira) from some person who I guess is her ally
in the government as her share of their loot and another sum of N
5,000,000.00(five million naira) both huge sums in her Sterling
Bank Account No. 0020634826.
“It may please you and also interest you to know that the said
Charity Ukonu is but a mere civil servant on Salary Grade Level
(SGL) 14 whose monthly take-home pay is about N 80,000.00. I attach
herewith a copy of query as Exhibit A from the office of The
Auditor General of the State on why Charity and cohorts are making
such unauthorized inclusions and padding of certain persons
salaries to the tune that becomes more than 100% the due
salary.
A careful perusal on the said Exhibit A Nos 25 reveals that
Charity payrolls herself and receives N 180,089.00 as gross while
the gross due is N 80,089.00.” Briefing journalists on the
development the State Commissioner for Information, Mr John Okiyi
Kalu, and his Finance counterpart, Mr Obinna Oriaku, said the
government position on such issues had always been transparency and
that the government would not shield any official found culpable.
That, they said, was the reason the government would cooperate with
EFCC to unearth the details of the allegation