Enugu – The Enugu State Executive Council has approved a draft bill to reduce the powers of revenue consultants and raise more funds for the state.
Addressing newsmen on Tuesday on the outcome of the executive council meeting, the Commissioner for Information, Dr Godwin Udeuhele, said that the bill would amend the Enugu State Finance Law, 2004.
Udeuhele said that the bill would disentangle the state’s internal revenue board from bureaucratic bottlenecks that had hampered its effectiveness as the existing law ceded enormous powers to the consultants.
“In the existing law, five per cent of the total revenue goes to the consultants and this is too much considering the amount that is generated.
“The new law will expunge that provision and insert a clause that will cede an approved amount to the consultants,” he said.
The commissioner said that the law would also take care of all noticeable grey areas in the existing legislation in the relationships among revenue generating agencies of the government.
“This law will create a clear link between the Enugu State Waste Management Agency (ESWAMA) and the state ministry of environment.
“As you know, there has not been environmental sanitation in the state for more than one year because of the powers the current law gives to the consultants,” he said.
Udeuhele said that the council also approved the payment of N85.94 million to AG Homes Mortgage Bank Plc on behalf of the 100 civil servants who won flats at the Elim Estate.
He said that the state governor was not pleased that seven months after the ballot which produced the winners, they did not have access to the flats.
“The governor is not so much pleased with what the administrators of the estate are doing and has approved the money to assist the workers take delivery of the their houses,” Udeuhele said. (NAN)
