Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has announced that his administration has been able to raise the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) to between N26 billion and N27 billion monthly from between N12 billion and N13 billion during the past administration.
The Governor disclosed this Friday when he played host to the leadership and members of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, who paid him a courtesy visit.
He restated that his administration operated a transparent accounting system in its deployment of scarce resources to provide essential services to the people.
He recalled that when he was appointed the Accountant General in 2020, the public accounting reporting position of the state changed for the better because he understood the numbers and how to clearly present the details.
He said that the culture of prudence and transparency has been maintained as he assumed the 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 is 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 N5.3 billion. Let us even do 25 per cent of it; it can’t be anything less than 8 points or 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,” he said.
He stressed, “We are very transparent. We are not hiding anything. That is why I would boldly say it. The least we do in this period is N26 billion to N27 billion. The highest they were doing before was N12 billion—N13 billion.”
He added that everything would be done to apply the funds to areas that would bring positive change in improving education, healthcare, and agriculture in the state.
“We will also do a few roads, but the most important things are these three sectors. That is the only way we can save ourselves from this present situation of hardship. Save ourselves from the issues of societal ills—you call them cultism and others.
“Education is the only instrument we can use to fight social vices. And we need quality healthcare. You need to be alive to even drive a good car on the roads. You can imagine how much we spend on medical tourism.
“Then, agriculture: we have to ensure food security and sufficiency. We have to feed ourselves to tame hunger. So, those are the targets of this government.”
Governor Fubara assured that no matter the challenges facing his administration, his eyes will still be on the ball and will not lose focus.
The governor insisted: “We have promised our people that our government will be for them. We care for the people. The people are more important to us. When you have people, you have everything.
“It doesn’t matter, the high and mighty, the number of policemen that you carry around. The people are most important. Because the people are the ones who, in their sub-units, control the people who, at the end, make the decisions when the time comes.
In his address, the Chairman of the 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 was peaceful, has a governor who understands what governance truly means, and has never been distracted by the political crisis confronting his administration.
He commended the governor for achieving over 26 projects in his first 100 days in office and urged him to continue to deliver the dividends of democracy to the Rivers people.
He also urged the governor to continue to anchor his administration on peace, saying that without peace, there could never be any meaningful development in the state.
About 36 members of the committee, their aides, and the retreat consultants were on the delegation for the visit.
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