Umahi To Create 2 More Ministries

THE newly sworn-in Governor of Ebonyi
state, Engr. Dave Umahi yesterday said
his administration would create two
more ministries to bring their number to
18. The new ministries include those of
Religious/Welfare and Planning, Design,
Evaluation and Strategy. Umahi spoke
shortly after being sworn in as the third
elected governor of the state at the
Abakaliki Township Stadium.
Governor Dave Umahi waving to the crowd
after taking oath of office at the Abakaliki
Township stadium yesterday
The Oaths of Office were administered
on the new deputy Governor, Dr Kelechi
Igwe and Governor Umahi respectively
by the state Chief Judge, Justice Alloy
Nwankwo before a large crowd of
cheering supporters. He said that his
government would also create special
Security Trust Fund to assist the state
government provide adequate security
for very high profile public and private
properties in the state.
“Our administration, through an Act of
the State House of Assembly, shall come
up with a law to create security a Trust
Fund which shall be maintained in the
office of the Special Adviser on Security
Matters.
“This fund will assist state government to
provide adequate security to very high
profile properties in the state, both
public and private, through the use of
electronic system, physical policing and
other sophisticated measures. This will
in turn reduce the cost of safe-guarding
such properties and afford the owners
100% safety over them.
“Our administration shall have one
control, evaluation and monitoring
system under the office of a new
Ministry of Planning, Design, Evaluation
and Strategy. Under this system, all
projects’ designs will be checked, costs
rechecked and certificate of payments
rechecked in line with work progress/
quality and right pricing adopted.
“In the face of dwindling revenue and
unprecedented high debt profile, we are
challenged to bring forward creative and
intelligent ways of running a very smart
administration. If we fail to do so, we
might fall short of our manifesto
commitments.
“Uncompleted projects in the state are
vast and spread across the entire
landscape, each carrying liabilities in
hundreds of millions if not in billions of
Naira.
“The state is swimming in a large sea of
debts especially unpaid certificates and
accumulated unpaid salaries to our civil
servants both at state and local
government levels. We are stepping into
governance with serious financial
challenges and negative balance sheet.
“Our administration will continue to
maintain the office of the Special
Adviser on Internal Security. So far, we
are lucky with the security agencies in
our state. We will, however, through the
Special Adviser on Internal Security,
assist all the security agencies in the
state