WHY OYIGBO REVENUE COMMITTEE ARE NOT
GENERATING MONEY TO THE COUNCIL
The Oyigbo Revenue Committee was inaugurated on the 17th of June, 2021. I was pronounced the Secretary of the Committee by the Executive Chairman at the point of the inauguration. The inaugural meeting of the Committee was held the following day and the road maps of the activities of the Committee were spelt out by members in that meeting. It is safe to say that none of the decisions of that meeting came to pass as the Committee was hijacked soon after by the Committee Chairman. To the best of my knowledge, there was barely any activity in 2021 by the Committee except daily toll collection in the market. The Chairman of the Committee was of the opinion that there will be no much activities for 2021 for the fact the previous regime had already driven the revenue.
The
Committee members endured for approximately five months without a pay after
inauguration. It was in the later part of November 2021 that Fifty Thousand
Naira was given to each member by the Committee Chairman as a rebate from
Market spoilage. It should be noted that the Committee Chairman never revealed
the rebate amount paid by the Council to the Committee till today.
Since
this year 2022, the Committee barely met. There was no meeting from January to
March neither payment to members of the Committee. It was after agitation by
members of the Committee that the Committee Chairman summoned a meeting and
issued Authority Letters to members towards the end of March. Since after the
issuance of Authority Letters to Members, the Committee has never met till this
day.
In
summary, the following are worthy of note:
1. The Committee Chairman Senibo Chijindu Daniel is running
a ‘one-man’ committee.
2. The Committee Chairman does not communicate or relate with
any of the Committee member including
me, the Secretary in the day to day running of the activities of the committee
3.
I, the Secretary of
the Committee signed 30 Authority letters in the presence of Committee members
and 10 of the 30 Authority letters were issued to the members of the Committee.
The rest 20 were handed to the Committee Chairman and up till this day, no
Committee member knows whom the remaining 20 were issued to. Aside the 30
Authority letters I signed, the rest were issued without my knowledge and to my
dismay, my signatures were forged on some of the letters found in the public
domain and I called his attention and he dismiss my protest. I reported to
members of the committee and nothing has been done in that regard as the committee
does not meet.
4. The Committee Chairman unilaterally engaged the services
of a private female secretary & completely snubs me who was appointed by
the Local Gov’t Chairman.
5. The Committee Chairman unilaterally appoints, engages,
employ and gives Authority Letters to whomever he likes, forging my signatory
and without recourse to the Committee Members.
6. As at present, No Committee member knows any tax agent
issued authority letter as it is only the Chairman and his personal secretary
that knows who is a tax agent,
7. I, the secretary nor any of the Committee Members has no
knowledge of the amount generated, paid or sought for by the committee. Each
time I request to know why we have not been generating money, He keep saying
that he knows what he is doing.
8.
The Committee made
suggestions that tax agents should be made to pay lump sum before the issuance
of Authority letter. But the Committee Chairman ignored the suggestion.
9.
I brought to bear my
technical input by increasing the money paid by Okada (cyclist) at Oyigbo from
fifty thousand to Hundred thousand naira weekly (Amounting to four hundred
thousand monthly). I also assisted in the formation of a revenue point in
Obeama for Okada (cyclist) which gives us five thousand per week amounting to
twenty thousand per month. The Committee Chairman had claimed that the 400,000
naira generated monthly from Okada in only Oyigbo urban is exclusively for
himself as the Council’s Chairman directed him to use it for servicing his
office. This did not go down well with members of the Committee but they have
been helpless
Also in Afam, the weekly revenue for okada is Ten thousand naira
amounting to forty thousand per month. These monies are paid directly to the
Committee Chairman without accounting to the Committee. When I asked, he said
he is paying to the ouncil and that he is the Chairman therefore I should allow
him to do his job.
10. Monies has been generated from several sources; For
instance, the following statistics were agreed by us in our meeting;
AFFE Members - 49 x 14,000 = 686,000
NAPPS UNIT 1 - 78 x 15,000 = 1,170,000
NAPPS UNIT 2 - 60 x 15,000 = 900,000
NAPPS AFAM - 23 x 13,000 = 299,000
= 3,055,000
The
above is supposedly the amount only from NAPPS. From my professional estimates,
in the first quarter, we are supposed to have generated more than Ten million
naira.
All our effort
to make the Committee Chairman to reveal the names of those he gave jobs to
have proved abortive. Some we meet in the field do tell us they bought the jobs
from the Committee Chairman hence while he refused letting Committee know them.
Scrap metal vendors paid huge amount to the Committee
Chairman and up till date, no one knows if the money was remitted to the
Council or not.
In
summary, I diligently performed my duties and to the best of my knowledge, my
technical advices were completely ignored. To the best of my knowledge, the Committee
is a one-man Committee and it is only the Chairman who can explain why we are
not generating. I had worked with several other chairmen such as Kelechi Azuh,
Late Tony Okpara etc. This persons imbibed my professional advice hence why
they succeeded in generating revenue for the L.G.A.
MY SUGGESTIONS
A. The Chairman of the council and the
Management of the L.G.A should summon a meeting of the Committee for a one on
one statements with members of the Committee. Wherever I am wrong in my
submission, then prove me wrong.
B. The
chairman of the committee should produce the list of the tax agents issued
authority letters. The total number of tax agents should be divided in numbers
and handover to each committee for effective supervision. By so doing, each
committee member will have a sense of duty and be accountable to the council.
I sincerely
appreciate the management for giving me the opportunity to express myself in
writing. I succinctly pledge to carry out my duties in the committee diligently
and as a career civil servant if the Committee Chairman creates space for
members work.
