Abuja – The Adamawa Government says it has employed a consultancy firm to help boost the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state.
Alhaji Ahmad Sajoh, the state Commissioner for Information, made this known when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Wednesday.
Sajoh said that the engagement of the firm became necessary in view of the need to bridge the gap created by the dwindling economy and income.
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“We invited a consultant – somebody with a track record, somebody who has worked with the Governors’ Forum and has done some peer review of the performance of state government in IGR.
“We have invited him; we have given him the contract to make sure that we improve on our IGR.
“The consultant has started work; we have started seeing some results.
“There are a lot of areas we have identified; but again, in trying to improve on our IGR, we have to be careful not to put too much pressure on the already fragile economy of our ordinary people.
“We already have a fragile economy of our people because of a lot of factors — insurgency, flooding, communal clashes; if we put too much pressure, it may slack.’’
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The commissioner disclosed that the present government inherited destroyed infrastructure, confused situation and heavy debt burden, including a backlog of salaries which it has paid some.
He further said that the state experienced serious flooding, communal clashes, very lean resources and back logged of allowances running up to seven years unpaid.
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“We also met a situation where backlog of allowance some running to seven years were not paid; we have paid some of it.
“The we also met a system where people exploited the confusion; you know our state had seven people sworn in as governors in seven years, which was the most confused situation you could ever get.
“Because of that confusion, people now exploited the confusion to also add certain things within the system to the extent that we didn’t even know how many staff we were supposed to be paying salaries.
“I tell you in trying to verify, we discovered one very shocking information: in one particular primary school that has five classroom blocks and less than a 100 pupils in that school.
“On their records, they said they had 185 teachers. You see what confusion can do? And so, we said let all the teachers come, we will want to see them, we could not see up to 17 teachers.
“Some people exploited the confusion within the system and it is all over in the LGA, in the health sector, in the education sector even in the mainstream civil service.
“So, we have been able to clean up the state; we are cleaning up the local government and other sectors.’’
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He gave assurance that the government was bent on cleaning up the entire sector, adding that for the first time in the history of the state, salary was paid as early as Dec. 16, 2015, even before the Federal Government.
He pledged the commitment of the government to implement programmes that would benefit the entire population by upgrading the infrastructure, rebuilding hospitals, schools and also creating rural roads.
On the state’s budget, the commissioner decried a situation whereby the budget only focused on a tiny percentage of the population.
He commended the present administration of Gov. Muhammadu Jibrilla, whom the people of the state wholeheartedly voted into office.
“So, he cannot undertake projects that are beneficial to the tiny minority alone; rather, he has vowed to undertake projects that would provide dividends to everybody.
“And the only way to touch people is through infrastructural development.’’
He stated that the state was equally repositioning agriculture, adding that 90 per cent of the people, including some civil servants, lived on subsistence agriculture.
According to the commissioner, the state has for the first time in its history, introduced fertiliser distribution for dry season farming with a view to encouraging the people to farm the whole year round.
Sajoh explained that the state could not have achieved all these if all the resources were allocated to recurrent issues including salaries, travelling, among others.
“When your budget is on that, then the people who gave you their mandates will have nothing to show for their effort.
“Let us go beyond the normal budgetary allocation of paying salaries and other things and go into infrastructural development so that the people can benefit.
“It is only when you provide infrastructure that you will raise ordinary people’s profile, which creates economic activities and brings disposable income that goes into the economy and circulates.’’
He added that raising their profile would equally create a vibrant economy which would in turn yield some internal revenues to the government.
On the conduct of council election, the commissioner said that the state government was not yet ready to embark on that in view of its lean resources and the cost implication of such exercise. (NAN)