In an effort to curb corruption in the state civil service, the Kogi State Government is to adopt the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
The state Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, disclosed this yesterday during his state broadcast in commemoration of Democracy Day.
He noted that his administration had set up an Economic Team and Fiscal Responsibility Committee to assist the administration in the area probity and accountability.
According to him, his administration will not condone corruption saying that he was not out to witch-hunt anyone, “we will not close our eyes to obvious cases of embezzlement of state fund.
“Of particular note in this regard is the N2 billion youth enterprise fund which the previous administration collected from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and basically distributed among political cronies and other favoured individuals.
“In most cases, they used fictitious beneficiaries. This money is a loan meant to stimulate commerce among youths. We will recover it back from whoever he stolen it.”
Alhaji Bello pointed out that his administration is paying great attention to agriculture adding that it is the next frontier in revenue projections.
According to him, they have set up several task forces and they have already started making gains in this area noting that in one area where the state has been averaging N2million revenue monthly, they have already earned N13 million in April simply by blacking the leakages as this was intended to grow into many other areas.
“We are also signing Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with tested large scale farm enterprises. The Dangote Group has negotiated for 20,000 hectares of land for rice production and others are in the pipeline.
“These people, members of the old retrogressive guard, have deliberately misinterpreted and maligned us and our successes. We however remain totally undeterred. As has become our trade mark in this administration, we will not make apologies or defer one bit to dishonest or divisive interest,” he stated.
Credit: Thisday
