Gombe Discovers N1.480B in 860 Accounts
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
Gombe State Governor, Inuwa Yahaya on Thusday, said his administration has uncovered 2,292 accounts operated by Ministries, Department and Agencies in past dispensations, adding that N1.480 billion was discovered from 860 accounts that were dormant and undisclosed.
Yahaya revealed this at a one-day workshop for accounting and paying officers of ministries, departments and agencies as well as chief executives of institutions of higher learning in Gombe state.
According to him, “Upon coming to office in May 2019, we met the state finances in a delicate situation characterized by high debt burden, wasteful spending and lack of accountability. Since then our administration has taken bold and calculated decision towards taking the state to the path of financial prudence and accountability.
“The introduction and enforcement of the State Treasury Single Account is one of them in order to ensure effective implementation of the TSA. I also signed order No 5 of 2020 to further strengthen the implementation and enforcement of the TSA. A total of 2,292 accounts linked to the state government were captured by the NIBSS and additional 265 hidden accounts were discovered. The sum of N1.480 billion was discovered from 860 accounts that were hitherto dormant or undisclosed. 586 dormant accounts were closed after generating their annual account statements for proper reconciliation and documentation. This shows the enormity of the financial indiscipline and opacity inherited by our administration.”
While appraising how his government has been providing amenities amidst scarce resources, Yahaya added that the state currently survives with N3.5B monthly.
“It is either we reform or we perish; Gombe state gets about N3.5B as statutory allocation. We are hovering between N200M to N400M Internally generated revenue. The water board alone on the average is taking about N400M monthly. N1.35B goes to the civil service, who are only about 67,000 in the state out of the population of merely 3.5m people.
“In order to further foster efficient management of cash resources, I also approved the Cash Management Strategy. This will help enhance budget performance by preventing costly budget overruns that negatively affect the implementation of our Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). Our administration does not see budget as mere figures, but as a tool of governance where expenditure must be carefully planned and backed by revenue, allowing us to meet our budget expectations,” he said.
Bravo to the all knowing Governor, pray he tells us who owns the accounts and what they were meant for. It’s not simply to make rhetoric remarks without directions.