The State Governor, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku has been described as a wonderful manager of scarce resources within the one year that he assumed mantle of leadership in Taraba State.

This was revealed by the Permanent Secretary and Chairman Taraba State Board of Internal Revenue, Adamu Sani Kona while speaking on the activities of the Board for the past one year under the captainship of the Chief Rescuer, Arc. Darius Ishaku..

He maintained that the state Revenue Board in last one year has been able to key into the rescue mission of the State Governor and turned in about four billion Naira as internally generated revenue IGR, from April 2015 to May 2016.

This, he said represents about 91% among other projects that the Board executed within the period under review.

The Permanent Secretary/ Chairman stated that the Board was able provide befitting office accommodation for staff of the Board at Gassol and Karim Lamido Local Government Areas respectively and equally renovated two zonal offices in Sardauna and Wukari local government areas.

Similarly, four vehicles were purchased to facilitate the movement of monitoring teams across the 16 local councils of the state as well as the purchase of 15 motorcycles to Staff of the Board to access areas that have difficult terrain in the state, stressing that at present, the Staff of the Board are always on the move to all the nooks and crannies of the state.

He maintained that within the period under review, all the three zonal offices are fully functional, 10 functional area offices as well as 16 collections centers with adequately trained staff to manned all the offices and posited that the Board is operating at its best because of the enabling working condition provided by the present Governor.

Accordingly, Adamu Sani said Governor Darius Ishaku is a hard working person who will push you to work exceedingly hard not because he wants to punish you but because he expects the best from you which will be beneficial to the entire state and stressed that the push from him has actually helped in repositioning the Board in coming up with innovations that will further boost tax tracking in the state.

The Permanent Secretary lamented that Governor Darius Ishaku took over the state when the country is faced with lots of problem, dwindling Federal Allocation which is laced on the fact that the revenue generation of this country is dependent upon the oil sector and now that there is decline from the sector, there is also a decline on what comes to the state and praised the indegenuity of the Governor for meeting some of the basic needs of the people of the state, most especially in the provision of water, roads and other essential services.

Adamu Sani stated that the Governor is a prudent manager of resources and averred that in spite of the fact the monthly Allocation of the state cannot pay salary,but quickly pointed out that in the face of this difficulty the Governor is still paying salary though delayed and equally embarking on developmental projects that have direct impact on the lives of the people of the state and added that, the only people being owed salary in the state are people that their names were omitted during the biometric verification and the ongoing design of salary template that will also include primary school teachers in the state..

Speaking further, he marinated that, the Board has been able to run her activities without any hitch and mentioned that allowances of Staff are paid as and when due including medical bills and other bills incurred while carrying out duties of the Board and reiterated his commitment to ensure that all staff of the state Revenue Board are comfortable so that they will be able to discharge their statutory responsibility without distraction, saying that the present Government has given them the needed support and cannot afford to fail.

Similarly, the Permanent Secretary mentioned that remittance by some Ministries, Boards and parastatals needs to be reviewed to meet up with the present realities and lamented that despite the huge investment of government on the Jolly Nyame Stadium coupled with the fact that regular events are being hosted there it has failed to make remittance and advised that such act of non compliance from MDAs needs to be corrected.

Adamu Sani stressed that Managing Government business needs commitment and the will to enforce positive changes and said the major problem of the Board is on the issuance of Government receipt which he said is controlled from the Ministry of Finance and said such may give raise to sharp practices and suggested that the issue of receipt should be left in the hands of the Board for effective supervision.

He also disclosed that a Staff of the Board is presently on suspension for alleged defrauding the Board of about 11.5 million bothering on illegally sales of number plates and said the suspension may be lifted after proper investigation has been concluded and added that discipline is always emphasised to all staff.

The Permanent Secretary/ Chairman of Taraba State Revenue Board reiterated his commitment and that of the entire Staff to support the present administration to succeed and disclosed that concerted effort is being made to come up with innovations aimed at exploring other avenues that would further boost Revenue generation in the state so as to maximally support the Rescue Mission of Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku in its totality.

-TarabaVoices