By Davies Iheamnachor, PORT HARCOURT
The Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has stated that the state under his watch generates between N26 to N27 billion monthly as Internally Generated Revenue.
This was as the governor restated that his Administration operates a transparent accounting system in its deployment of scarce resources in providing essential services to the people.
Fubara spoke when he played host to the leadership and members of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on a courtesy visit to Government House in Port Harcourt, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Nelson Chukwudi.
The governor recalled that when he was appointed the Accountant General in 2020, the public accounting reporting position of the State changed for the best because he understood the numbers and how to clearly present the details.
He said that culture of prudence and transparency has been maintained as he assumed governorship of the State despite the challenges that had confronted his Administration.
The Governor stated that in managing the finances, he has also increased the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the State, which are judiciously deployed to deliver on the core target areas of his Administration.
He said, “As an organised Government, when we came on board, we met a very big challenge. For 11 years, there was no promotion in this State Civil Service. So, imagine a government that inherited about 52,000 civil servants, and you want to pay them for years that they had been denied their dues.
“What we were paying before I came in was an average of N5.3billion. Let us even do 25 percent of it: it can’t be anything less than 8 point something billion that we are doing now. That was what we started paying.
“How much is our allocation? So, we needed to think outside the box. That was where we now did a rejig of our Internally Generated Revenue. And I can tell you today that all the projects we are doing, we don’t borrow.”
Fubara further revealed: “We are very transparent. We are not hiding anything. That is why I boldly would say it. The least we do this period is N26billion – N27billion. The highest they were doing before was N12billion – N13billion.”
However, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, Hon Bamidele Salam, said they were in the State for the first retreat of the committee.
Hon Salam pointed out that they chose the State because it is peaceful, and has a Governor who understands what governance truly means and has never been distracted by the political crisis confronting his Administration
Source: Vanguard
