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Group Petitions Buhari Over Alleged Maladministration In FCTA, Accuses Minister Musa Bello Of Highhandedness

AN anti-corruption group, Citizens Awareness Against Corruption and Social Vices Initiative, CAACASVI, has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari over alleged maladministration in the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA.

The petition, dated June 21, was signed by the Executive Director of the group, Olumuyiwa Onlede, and copied to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, and the FCT ministers.

Others copied in the petition included the FCTA Permanent Secretary, Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Director of Department of State Security, FCT Commissioner of Police and the Media.

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In the petition, the group accused Minister Musa Bello of maladministration, incompetence and loss of control in the FCTA, lamenting that the action had resulted in abysmal performance and loss of revenue in the territory.

According to the group, for the past six months, the office of the Director of treasury of FCTA has been vacant “for no justifiable reasons”.

“Your Excellency Sir, this is gross violation of principle of corporate good governance in FCTA as the Permanent Secretary is simultaneously performing the function of Director of treasury thereby making approvals and payments at the same time which means the Permanent Secretary approbate and reprobate at the same time,” the group stated.

The group also accused the FCTA of illegally demolishing structures even when there are substantive court orders restraining development control from carrying out such demolitions.

Worse of it all, according to the group, the minister “always look the other way when served with court orders and this has resulted to cost being awarded against FCDA by the court in a way that the account of FCDA is garnished to serve as deterrent and this adversely affects the running of FCDA in term of fund”.

The group further alleged that “alteration of reporting line has also resulted into duplication of duty within the system, treated files in FCDA are sent back to FCTA Treasury department for a fresh processing before contractors are paid, this also result to waste of time, energy, manpower, materials and relative unease between contractors and FCDA”.

While alleging that since the beginning of this administration in 2015 there had been no substantive Executive Secretary to pilot the affairs of the five Secretariats of FCTA, the group also alleged that the management of the departments had been in acting capacity since then.

According to the group, the action has affected the policy implementation of FCTA due to the fact that those in acting capacity are not permitted by law to take some critical decisions or act on them.

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“Same goes to most of the parastatals under FCDA, they are also performing below expectation due to the fact that they lack power and even the confidence to carry out major and important decisions which ordinarily would have benefited the agencies.

“Due to rigorous and unnecessary bureaucracy imposed on the system by the Honourable Minister, court orders are not acted upon quickly and in some cases ignored by his office and this often leads to judgment against FCTA and its parastatals,” the group said.

The group also accused the minister of allocating areas tagged as green or waterways to property developers for the construction of estates.

“Land allocation within the FCT most especially the city center is something that is clear and critical to any government and the people. Lately, places, where it was believed to be green areas or close to water channels, are being allocated to property developers for estates, the consequences of these in future may get out of control just as we see in big cities that failed to follow the master plan,” the group added.

The group, therefore, issued a fourteen-day ultimatum for the minister to act on these allegations and correct these anomalies, stressing that failure to act on this “will leave us with no other choice than to mobilise all other civil society organisation of like minds to picket the office of the minister and subsequently employ every constitutional means to compel the Honourable minister to do the right thing”.

Daily Nigerian News

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