Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau has expressed delight at the corruption survey released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which placed the state as the second least corrupt in Nigeria.
Lalong, who spoke through his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Dr. Makut Macham, said the survey had validated efforts of his administration towards entrenching good governance, accountability and transparency in the management of public funds.
“On assumption of office, I declared my administration’s zero tolerance for corruption and our determination to ensure that public funds are used strictly for the benefit of the people of Plateau.
“Based on this, we established various mechanisms for checking corruption and enhancing transparency in public service. We were among the first states of the federation to adopt the Treasury Single Account (TSA), where we made sure all monies accruing to government went into a TSA for easy oversight and monitoring.
“We also established the Efficiency Unit that is saddled with the duty of checking all proposals and requests to ensure that they are in line with the vision of the government and offer value for the people. We also put in place the Bureau for Public Procurement, which has the mandate of vetting all procurements to ensure that there are no wasteful and exaggerated costs,” he said. Lalong stated that he had recently set up the Project Monitoring and Result Delivery Unit (PMRDU) in the office of the Chief of Staff.