The Niger State government generated about N31.6 billion from all sources between January and June this year, the House of Assembly Committee on Finance, which investigated the financial standing of the state government for the period under review, has said.
In its report submitted at plenary on Wednesday, the committee observed that statutory allocation to the state was about N11.7 billion; Value added Tax (VAT) brought in N4.3 billion, while the exchange gain is put at N141, 149, 065. 01.
Internally Generated Revenue for Niger State within the period under review was N2.427 billion, while all the bailouts got from the federal government stood at N2.5 billion and N10 billion, respectively.
The committee in the report also hinted that the Single Treasury Account (TSA) introduced by the All Progressive Congress (APC) administration raked in N424, 619, 198.52 between January and June 2016.
The report as presented by the Committee Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi A Mammagi, also revealed that the government within the period expended N26.6 billion out of which N18.9 billion was for the payments of salaries.
Other areas the monies were expended on included overheads and releases made to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, as almost N500 million was spent on the consultants that were engaged to improve the state IGR and the officials of the Board of Internal Revenue.
A total of N2.8 billion out of the N10 billion meant for Infrastructural Development within the period were also utilized on the various projects “spread across the three senatorial zones”, leaving a balance of N7.137 billion, the report also indicated.
The committee however expressed with dismay the “poor performance of our IGR despite the seeming reforms carried out in the sector with the aim of improving the revenue base of Niger State. In fact there was no significant improvement as to what we used to have in the past”.
The report however described as, ‘fraudulent’ an arrangement whereby a consultant is engaged in specific areas is paid a percentage of the total sum collected”.
“The engagement of the consultants which is supposed to improve the revenue of the state is rather worsening our situation as a government”, the report said and therefore called for a total overhauling of the state Board of Internal Revenue to make it more result-oriented to meeting the financial needs of the state.
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, Niger State Planning Commission, Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed, has raised the alarm over dangers posed by the perversion of due processes in doing government businesses in the state.
Due process is not being followed in the implementation of a lot of policies, programmes and projects in the state. Funds are being sent to Ministries, Departments and Agencies without the commission’s documented knowledge and consent and this is dangerous for the state, he said.
The permanent secretary made the observation during the validation meeting of the Niger State Aid Coordination Strategy organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which took place in Minna, the state capital.
A lot of programme, he said, was being carried out or executed without the knowledge or input of the state Planning Commission and that is basically why counterpart funds are usually being collected by some group of people without proper documentations.
Abuse of due processes in doing government businesses especially on coming and spending of support funds from donor agencies, the permanent secretary said, has reduced the commission to becoming more like a mere rubber stamp commission.
According to him, “Lots of monies are being paid into government Ministries, Development and Agencies (MDAs) without the knowledge of the Planning Commission. It is no longer a secret that some people collect counterpart funds without our knowledge and dealing with the problems have not been that easy”.
