Etsako Central Local Government Chairman, Hon. Solomon Obomighie, has berated the staff of the revenue department of the local government over poor Internally Generation Revenue (IGR) in the local government.
Expressing his displeasure during a meeting with the revenue staff in his office at the council secretariat, he enjoined them to redouble their effort to ensure they improve on their generations by next month, saying their monthly collections fell far below expectation.
He said there would be a time when they will no longer depend on the Federal Government allocation for salaries, and this will definitely lead to non-payment of salary if what they are collecting presently is not improved upon.
The council boss, who also frowned at the attitude of some of the revenue staff that confessed to be coming to work once or twice in a week, said IGR is what every government at all levels depends on to deliver the dividend of democracy to the people and therefore threatened to redeploy them to the offices.
“Before I called this meeting, I had already done my independent investigation and discovered the lapses, and anybody found a culprit would be disciplined accordingly,” he warned.
Hon. Obomighie urged them to think outside the box and find out areas they have not been tapping, like marriages, adding that he is much ready to close down any hotel and business centre operating in the local government that refuses to pay taxes as he can not tolerate it any longer.
He, however, charged them to wake up to their responsibility and show more commitment to justify their salaries.
Responding to a comment by one of the revenue staff, the chairman said, “I don’t believe in lamentations because of the disadvantaged position of the local government. Lamentation doesn’t help instead, we should always think outside the box and think big,” he stated.
Speaking in the same vein, the treasurer to the local government, Mr Okodugha Samuel M.O., expressed dismay over the attitude of the revenue staff, saying the strength of 42 revenue staff is collecting IGR far below expectations for the local government.
According to Okodugha, there are a lot of lapses and insubordination among them towards the work and then to ensure that what is on the table is more than what is under the table.
The meeting was also attended by the Head of Local Government Administration (HOLGA), Mr James Okungbowa, Head of Revenue Department (HOD), Mrs Tessy Igiode and the local government adviser, Com. Amedu Matthew.
