NAN-H-91
Visibility
By Monday Ijeh
Abuja, Nov. 29, 2016 (NAN) The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, has called on the management of the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) to make its activities visible to Nigerians.
Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, Chairman of the committee, made the call during an oversight visit to the commission by members of the committee in Abuja on Tuesday.
Anyanwu, who said the activities of PCC were not known to members of the public, urged the management to embrace the use of modern technology in its operations.
He said PCC was among the veritable commissions in the country that deserved adequate attention considering the nature of petitions it received from members of the public.
“The Public Complaints Commission is a very important commission that is helping government to ensure peace and stability in the country.
“Most of the complaints handled in this commission are such that if not adequately resolved could result to national security problem.
“So, I think it is a commission that must be properly attended to by the Federal Government”, he said.
He said the virement approved for the commission was to augment its 2016 budget because it was not able to pay its staff salaries.
“By my understanding, they have a wage bill of over N4 billion and what they were given for 2016 was just N2 billion.
“That was why they seemed to have some crisis but what they have gotten now will help to cushion the effect of the discrepancy in the 2016 budget”, he added.
The committee chairman expressed dismay over the state of infrastructure at the commission’s headquarters and called for more funding to enable it deliver on its mandate.
Mr Emmanuel Ogbile, the Chief Commissioner of PCC, urged the committee members to support the commission to ensure that the challenges it faced in 2016 were not repeated.
He said the commission was established to serve the interest of Nigerians particularly the downtrodden.
“What we intend to do is to make ourselves a little more visible to enable Nigerians know that we are here to serve them.
“We also intend to let Nigerians know the process to log on to PCC to get redress in terms of administrative injustice”, he said. (NAN)
IMC/AK/IEA
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Edited by Akin Makanjuola/Idahosa Asowata