The Jigawa State Government has approved the reinstatement of the suspended Commissioner for Commerce and Industries, Aminu Kanta.
The Commissioner of Information, Youth, Sport and Culture, Sagir Musa Ahmed, confirmed the development while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Umar Namadi.
It was reported that the Jigawa State governor suspended the Commissioner for Commerce over the alleged misappropriation of funds for the Ramadan feeding programme in Babura Local Government and constituted a committee to investigate the allegations.
According to Ahmed: “The council has deliberated on the findings of the committee, which centred on why the quantity of the menu for the Babura LGA feeding programme was carried out contrary to what was approved by the council. The committee’s report revealed that the problem with the Babura feeding programme occurred as a result of the erroneous judgement of the contractor.”
He explained that the committee found that the main food vendor was disbursing funds per ward instead of per centre, which was the reason why the cost of feeding was reduced to 50 per cent of the total daily cost for each feeding centre.
He said other findings of the committee revealed that the problem was not detected early due to the poor, supervision of the exercise by the suspended commissioner.
Ahmed stated that the balance of the 50 per cent unspent by the vendor was recovered and returned to the coffers of the state government.
He said the council, however, recommended the lifting of the suspension placed on the commissioner and council members unanimously approved the reinstatement of the suspended commissioner back to his job.