Following discovery of monumental fraud allegedly perpetrated by Caretaker Committee Chairmen in the State, the Rivers State House of Assembly yesterday barred Local Government Caretaker Committee Chairmen from making any expenditure except for the payment of staff salaries.
The development followed discovery of large scale fraud in some of the councils which prompted the House to direct its Special Committee to look into the financial records of the councils.
The House said it was no longer going to tolerate a situation where the Caretaker Chairmen hide under allocations to their offices and other unnamed expenses to fleece the council areas of huge sums of money.
Submitting the report, Chairman of the Special Committee and Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon Charles Nwile whose father was kidnapped some days ago specifically mentioned Tai, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni and Asari-Toru Councils as those that dipped their hands into the treasuries of their domains.
He said they allocated spurious sums under miscellaneous heads to their offices which they in turn took away, pointing out that Tai Local Government in July alone allocated N34, 896,609.47 and N12, 994,000.00 under miscellaneous expenses.
Also following the trend, he said Asari Toru Council Caretaker Chairman allocated N15, 896,820.04 and another N10, 269,500 for miscellaneous.