Orji Wants Commissioners To Close Illegal Bank Accounts

Abia State Governor, Dr Theodore Orji of Abia State on Monday ordered commissioners in the state to close illegal bank accounts operated in their ministries or get sacked.

Orji gave the directive at Government House, Umuahia, when he met with commissioners, permanent secretaries and heads of non-ministerial organisations in the state.

He said that the commissioners were using the ‘special accounts’ they opened in the ministries to defraud the State Government.

The governor also accused  the functionaries of using the accounts to sabotage the efforts of his administration to boost Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) in the state.

“As you leave this place, you should close all the revenue accounts in your ministries where you keep your revenue and disburse without government’s knowledge. “All the revenues generated by your ministries must be paid into the consolidated revenue account, that is what the law says,’’ Orji said.

He blamed the state’s dwindling IGR on sharp practices by the commissioners in league with permanent secretaries and civil servants, saying that they were pocketing revenues meant for the government.

The governor alleged that a particular commissioner floated a revenue collecting company, through which he was pocketing money that ought to go into government’s coffers.

Orji said the state depended on the Federation Account allocation of N3.5 billion most of the time when it had the potential to generate two or three billion naira monthly.

He pointed out that Aba, the commercial nerve-centre of the state, generated the revenue that was used to run the defunct Imo State, stressing that the city still had the potential to sustain Abia.

“The openings for revenue generation are still there in Aba but we are not harnessing them because of sabotage and personal aggrandisement. “We have instances where officers collect money and pocket it,’’ he said

The governor said that only one revenue consultant was approved by the government for revenue collection in the state, saying that any other consultant or revenue collector was illegal.

The governor frowned at the report of incessant harassment of traders and residents of Umuahia and Aba by revenue agents, “unleashed on the people by the Abia State Environmental Sanitation Agency. ’’

He said that while the agents molested the people and raked in huge revenues running into hundreds of millions of naira, only a pittance was being remitted to government’s coffers.

He directed the agency to cancel all the contracts awarded for revenue collection, “no matter who is involved. ’’