Policy Alert cautions A’Ibom govt against bogus bureaucracy

Ini Billie, Uyo

Policy Alert, a Civil Society Organisation promoting economic and ecological justice in the Niger Delta region has cautioned the Akwa Ibom State Government against a bogus bureaucracy.

Chief Executive Officer, Policy Alert, Mr Tijah Bolton-Akpan, said the state government already has a huge debt profile and increasing it with a bogus bureaucracy would not augur well for the fortunes of the state.

Speaking on Monday in Uyo in reaction to the appointment of 368 personal assistants by Governor Umo Eno estimated to cost the state a salary burden of N73.6million monthly, and the planned appointment of 4,000 more, Akpan explained that following the fluctuation in oil prices at the international market, it would be difficult for the state to meet its operational cost.

“We are at a very delicate point in the history of the Niger Delta in terms of revenue flow from the Federation Account to the subnational. This is because oil production has not been as it used to be and the prices too are not upbeat as they were expected to be at this time. So, states like Akwa Ibom would have a difficult time meeting with operational costs.

“Akwa Ibom State recently did a supplementary budget of N150billion. If you add that to our previous budget, it takes our budget close to a trillion naira. So, we keep budgeting and spending a huge chunk of that budget in addressing overhead cost. Overhead cost is the cost of running government and not the cost of channelling development to the people. It is the capital part of the budget that does that.

“But when we keep bringing in more people and a bogus bureaucracy which would need to be serviced, they would need to be paid salary and allowances and given impress to run their officers, these are all expenditure lines that the state can do without at a time like this. It is a time for frugality and not a time for knee check appointments that would end up bloating the expenditure profile of the state.

“The debt profile of the state is huge, the last administration left a debt profile of loans that are unpaid. When you now have an administration that is expanding the bureaucracy, you are laying trap for yourself that very soon, along the line, it would be difficult to deliver on governance, on needed services that would lift people above poverty and address their everyday need. That is what government should be concentrating on, not servicing a fat political bureaucracy,” he stated.

The CEO dismissed the argument that the political appointments would facilitate the implementation of the ARISE agenda of Governor Umo Eno at the grassroot level, saying the civil service and local government service structure was intended to take care of the grassroot.

He advised that the civil service and local government service structure should be used to drive the implementation of the ARISE agenda, adding that the political appointments would not add any developmental value to the state.

“Why do we have the civil service structure, why do we have the local government? Even if you are looking at the ARISE agenda in terms of localisation, the grassroot penetration of the agenda, why do you have the local government system?

“You have the Commissioner for Local Government who has local government officers in all the LGAs. That argument does not cut it because there is already a system that can address that. We have the local government system and civil service bureaucracy, and we have other structures for such things. It is just for the government to latch his ARISE agenda on existing civil service structure, not to create a fresh parallel structure.

“For all I know, the appointees don’t even know what the acronym ARISE stands for and you are asking them to implement the ARISE agenda. They are just there for the political value for what they represent politically in the local government areas.

“I think it does not add any quality or developmental value to the situation. I cannot deny the political value which might be putting the structures in place for the re-election. But if they want to concentrate on political value, they should and not try to put the wool over our eyes that it has any developmental value, it doesn’t,” he insisted.