Mr Arlat Dasogot, Chairman, Plateau State Internal Revenue Service (PSIRS) has said that the service generated N17 billion from January to September 2021, as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Dasogot made the disclosure at the state’s revenue council whistle blowing sub-committee stakeholder engagement on Monday, in Jos.
The chairman said that the target of the service was to generate at least N2 billion monthly, but were only able to realise over a billion per month, except for June and August that was lower than a billion.
He noted that when fully implemented, the Plateau revenue law, enacted in November 2020, would significantly boost the state’s IGR.
“Efforts to implement the law fully has been on, we have been working with our partners comprising mostly professionals.
“We are implementing the law together with Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) and we are witnessing improvements in revenues the MDA have been collecting.
“Prior to the law, the MDAs were not fully accounting for the revenues they were collecting, but with the law, they know that they must account for the revenues they collect.
“We are making progress but we are not yet there, but we are not losing hope,” he said.
He said that the whistleblowing mechanism was putting them on their toes, and that the public was free to report whatever the service was not doing right.
Dasogot added that whistleblowing would help PSIRS to redefine its compass, adding that where leakages were identified, the whistle blowing should report them so that it would be taken to the revenue council to address.
Dr Nancy Katu-Ogundimu, Chairperson, whistleblowing sub-committee of the revenue council, said that the engagement was to present the whistleblowing operational guidelines and procedures to the stakeholders.
Katu-Ogundimu assured of the state revenue council’s commitment to the highest standards of transparency, accountability and probity.
“To achieve this, the council set up a whistleblowing sub-committee, in line with Article 2.4 of the Governance Charter, to encourage members of the public and stakeholders to bring out helpful information in enforcing the Revenue Law 2020.
“An important aspect of ensuring accountability and transparency is a mechanism to enable employees of the Plateau government, members of the public and stakeholders to voice concerns in a responsible and effective manner.
“To this end, the whistleblowing mechanism is aimed at encouraging the public and employees of the state government, members of the public and all stakeholders to share information that will be helpful in effectively enforcing the Revenue Law 2020,” he said.
The chairperson further said that the committee would ensure high level of confidentiality for whistle blowers, while all allegations would be thoroughly investigated.
According her, disciplinary recommendations would be made by council, were necessary, to sanction any staff or member of council found wanting in the discharge of their responsibilities.
The highlights of the Plateau State Consolidated Revenue Law 2020 was presented to the meeting by the representative of the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.
Mr Philip Wallok, Chairman, Plateau House of Assembly Committee on Finance, said that apart from making laws, the assembly also monitored the implementation of laws.
The stakeholders were drawn from different critical sectors to make their inputs on how the whistle blowing sub-committee could achieve its mandate with a view to shoring up the state’s revenues.