Edo State Deputy Governor, Mr. Philip Shaibu, Tuesday, chaired the monthly revenue review meeting, with the cheering report that the 18 Local Government Councils generated N102.7million for the month of June.
This is against the paltry N3million generated in May.
The increase is coming on the heels of the alarm raised by the Deputy Governor at the last monthly revenue meeting, where he threatened to drag the council officials before Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Shaibu said: “If everything is on the table, the local governments are capable of raking in at least, N500million on a monthly basis.”
According to him, Oredo alone, has the capacity of generating over N100million monthly if all the leakages are blocked, compared to the embarrassing #3m declared by the 18 LGAs in May.
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“However, we are not there yet because the local government councils are supposed to fix the ‘trunk C’ roads (inner roads) in their locality. Sad enough, it remains a burden on us in the state.”
As part of measures at stemming fraud and leakages in the revenue collection system, the Deputy Governor has directed that a taskforce be constituted to monitor sales of tickets across the councils.
The Taskforce to be headed by one of the seasoned and trusted revenue directors in the local government councils, is expected to be inaugurated next week by the Deputy Governor.
The Taskforce will have representatives from each local government council, across the three senatorial districts of the State.
The three recognized transport unions, NURTW, RTEAN and ANNEWAT will be represented on the Taskforce and representatives from the technical service providers.
The Chief Security Officer, CSO, Government House, Benin City, is expected to provide security cover for the Taskforce.
