Benue Targets N1.2bn IGR Generations For Starts – Ortom

The Benue Governor, Samuel Ortom,? has said his administration is targeting to generate N1.2 million of Internally
Generated Revenue (IGR) for a start as against the N300 million it met on ground.

This is even as he has disclosed
that with the intervention of the Federal Government, the state
paid in full it’s workers salaries up to July but is left with the outstanding of pensions, gratuities, salary arrears and other entitlements and allowances
?of workers.

Ortom told State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, at the
Presidential Villa, that his administration has also succeeded in
blocking all conduits where state funds were being siphoned, saying? henceforth paying salaries will no longer be a problem because every worker deserves hhis wages as ordered by the Holy Book.

Ortom said, his state was all out to fight corruption especially in the face of dwindling economy, vowing that like the center every looted funds will be recovered ?and those found to have helped themselves to the state’s funds prosecuted and no state funds will be diverted under his watch.

Asked whether Benue was buoyant to
under take further development programmes, the governor said,
“We are looking at other various sources because we are not buoyant it is just that we prioritize the issue of payment of salaries. We are looking at other sources of improving our revenues, not just looking at the federation account, but within the internally generated revenue, we feel that we can also improve on what are having, so that we can use that to
do other projects, which will have direct bearing on the people’s lives, add value to the development of the
state.

“Every thing is about the sustainability of what we have now. One thing I can assure you is that, in an administration, starting from me, nobody will divert money meant for public service, including payment of salaries. So no one can do that. I have said that and it has become a slogan in Benue State that when you chop
money, money will chop you, and people are already sitting up and
of course, if you escape Benue State and come to Abuja, Buhari will
arrest you, and everybody knows what this administration stands for, and that is the change we need in this country, so that alone is something. So like I said, we will boost internally generated
revenue and collect taxes we are encouraging our people to do it
because no one will divert their money again. And so whatever they pay as taxes will be turned back for the development of the state”.

On the target for the IGR in the
state, Ortom said, “What we met on
ground was between N250 million – N300 million, but my target is to
boost that to at least N1.2 billion for a start”.

On plans to prosecute those who
diverted public funds, he said, ?”Of
course even if I draw a line, those ones are obvious, if you are involved, you will be apprehended and sanctioned and for now, where we took off, if anybody diverts public funds, there is no waste of time at all you will be apprehended immediately”.

The governor disclosed that no one
has been apprehended so far for diverting public funds.