I Inherited Empty Treasury, Disillusioned Civil Service, Alleges Uzodimma
The Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma,
has continued to deride his predecessors for the alleged ‘broken state of affairs
in the state, an empty treasury as well as disillusioned civil service’ he had
inherited.
The governor, who was addressing the people of the
state to mark his 100 days in office, said the circumstances of his taking over
the state as governor did not give him the opportunity to set up a transition
committee in order to prepare well for governance.
According to him, “The situation was not helped by
the sorry state of affairs I inherited. There was no handover note from the
previous government to mine. This left me with no definite starting point.
“In addition, I inherited an empty treasury and a
disillusioned, disoriented and dispirited civil service.
"It was
sad to behold the site of the Imo State Civil Service secretariat. The roofs of
all the buildings housing the civil service structure were leaking. All the
blocks were dirty and unkempt. There was no water in the buildings just as
there was no electricity. To describe the entire environment where our civil
servants worked as reminiscent of an abandoned scary set of buildings in which
no decent person can conduct any meaningful business will be a gross
understatement. It was close to a piggery.
"Worse still, I inherited a public service
sector that was riddled with corruption and deceit. The amount of Imo State
money that was siphoned through a public sector corruption riddled payroll
system was simply mind blowing. It was, to say the least, incredible.”
He added: "It was very painful to me that
while Imo people groaned under the yoke of scanty infrastructural provisions
and lack of efficient public service delivery, few heartless people were
regularly siphoning huge sums of money from public coffers. It is needless to
add that these stolen funds could have been used to provide more
infrastructures and services to the people.”
The governor noted that his 100 days in office had
offered an auspicious moment to share and review "our journey so far since
that fateful day of January 15 when I was sworn in as the rightfully elected governor
of our dear state."
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