…Confirms Nominees for Civil Service Commission, State and LG Auditor General
During the plenary on Thursday, the Anambra State House of Assembly Service Commission invoked the relevant sections of the Anambra State House of Assembly Service Commission to appoint Mr. Anthony Emeka Uyenu, as the Acting Clerk of the Assembly. Mr. Anthony who worked in the House of Assembly for many years, was the Sergeant-at-arms of the Anambra State House of Assembly before he was posted to the office of the Secretary to the State Government, from where he had also served as the Secretary to the Anambra State Executive Council, before his latest appointment as the Acting Clerk of Anambra Assembly.
Also on Thursday, the governor’s nominees for the positions of Anambra State Civil Service Commission chairman and members, Anambra State Auditor General and Local Government Auditor General, were all screened and confirmed by the House of Assembly.
For the Civil Service Commission, Mr. Ezenwaka Anthony was nominated as the Chairman of the Commission and was confirmed by the Assembly. Mr. Akosa Charles was nominated for the position of Auditor General of the State and he was similarly screened and confirmed. Also, Mrs. Anyaegbunam Josephine Nkolika was screened and confirmed by the House of Assembly as the Local Government Auditor General.
Speaking to journalists after the confirmation by the House, the State Auditor General, Mr. Charles Akosa, said he will work towards ensuring effective checks and balances. “With this, my office has been empowered to ensure effective checks and balances, about the management of public resources,” Mr. Akosa said. Reacting to the question of what innovation he is bringing to enhance probity and accountability, the State Auditor General Said that his office has designed a fraud-proof system to address that concern. “My office has designed an effective template to audit, monitor, and provide prompt reporting to the relevant stakeholders.” This he said, while affirming that ICT will play an important role in his activities.
On her part, responding to questions from journalists, Mrs. Anyaegbunam said that in tackling the problem of capacity-building identified as a major roadblock to effective local government auditing, she would deploy the existing system of training and capacity-building introduced by the state government. “I have already started working on that…there is a big gap in the capacity of the personnel and we know that the work of an internal auditor is very key in ensuring that procedures and processes are adhered to. The strength and weaknesses of the internal auditor is key. We have started organizing training and this is one of my top priorities”, she said. Mrs. Nkolika Anyaegbunam also thanked the governor for allowing her to serve.
For Mr. Ezenwaka Anthony, claims that the civil service is overstaffed are unfounded. According to Ezenwaka, “My office is concerned with promoting the welfare of workers and as you can see, there are backlog of such welfare matters. They will be attended to and we will do it fast. We will work it out and they will be in their best and be happy to give their best to the government and the state.” He also hinted that he has the governor’s full support to address all welfare matters of civil servants. Reacting to a question by Ebuka Onyekwelu of West African Pilot News as to what he intends to do about the age-long argument that a lot of civil servants are “redundant”, Mr. Ezenwaka dismissed it, insisting that at the moment, there are not enough civil servants, and that they are critical in piloting the affairs of the state and government. “Anybody making such statements does not really understand how the system works. You can’t talk of redundancy when the number of workers is very low. We have decreased staff strength. Then, these workers you are talking about are the powerhouse of the service. Without them, you can’t do anything, let’s be clear about that. Right now, the workers are preparing the budget for 2025. They are always involved but don’t take credit for what they did. Let me emphasize, these workers have been prepared to keep the machinery of government running with or without government,” Mr. Ezenwaka concluded.
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