Press Release Local Government Administration Law 2014: The Salient Points The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has taken a bold step in strengthening administration at the grass root by amending the local government administration Law 2007. The Local Government amendment Bill which seeks to address the weakness of the old law, strengthen government at the grassroot as well as remove any ambiguity that existed in the old local government law. As part of the amendment, elected council chairmen are to be sworn-in at their respective Local Government headquarters by a High Court Judge. At the plenary, the Assembly also abolished the caretaker committee arrangement at the expiration of office of the elected officials, but provided for a transition committee that will not stay beyond six months. To this end, transition committee chairmen are to be sworn in by the state governor at the state headquarters with five supervisors and two special advisers as members. The private member bill sponsored by the member for Mkpat Enin State Constituency, Rt. Hon (Barr) Ekong Sampson pegged the tenure of elected councils chairmen at three years and a re- election of not more than once. The Finance and General Purpose Committee (FGPC) must take place at least once in a month within the councils headquarters where minutes of the previous meeting duly signed by the chairman and secretary must be circulated to members within 48 hours before the meeting. It stated that in the event of death of the council chairman or vice before taking oath of office, a new candidate must be nominated from the same ward where the death chairman or vice chairman came from in line with section 136 (2) and 181 (2) of the constitution. The bill also provided for the appointment of one Special Assistant (SA) and two Personnel Assistants (PAs) to the chairman of council. The bill also allowed for creation of offices for the deputy majority leader, deputy minority leader and deputy chief whip that were not there, explaining that for deputy minority leader to exist, the minority parties must produce not less than three councilors. Clause 12 of the bill provides for the appointment of a clerk for the councils legislature from the administrative or executive cadre of the public service and that the quorum of legislative council should be one-half of the members rather than one third that reflected in Section 16 of the law. The bill also provided for the councils legislature to ratify and pass budget sent to it by the local government executive council to allow for effective administration. The Speaker of the Assembly, Elder Samuel Ikon while commending the sponsors of the bill expressed hope that the new law will strengthen local government administration in the state. He also commended members for their useful contributions towards the amendment of the bill which will go a long way in stabilizing democracy in the state. Barr Sampson in an interaction with Assembly correspondents said what the house did was in a way grant the local government the autonomy to effectively run the councils.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 06:31:02 +0000
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