Admin l Saturday, April 27, 2018
YENGOA, Nigeria – The Bayelsa State Government got the sum of N12.949 Allocation from the Federation Account for the month of April. The State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Maxwell Ebibai, said in a statement on Friday that the amount represented a drop of N775 million from the allocation for the month of March which was put at N13.724 billion.
Ebibai said the decision to inform the state on the amount received from the Federation Account was in line with government’s policy on transparency, accountability and the continuous engagement with the citizenry on critical issues. The commissioner noted that the unpredictable nature of the price of crude oil international oil market makes it difficult to predict monthly receipts from the Federation Account for effective planning.
Ebibai called on the Bayelsa citizenry to support the ongoing public sector reform for the emergence of a virile and efficient public service to drive development in the state. He stressed that effective implementation of the reforms in the public sector would reduce cost of governance, eliminate wastages, blocking of wastage among others.
He said, “The Reforms will result in a cost effective, more efficient and result oriented Civil Service. Further benefits of the Reforms, include reduction of the cost of governance through improvement in value for money, eliminating of wastages, and blocking of leakages through deployment of appropriate technological solutions in government financial management system. This is being achieved with Government partnership with the World Bank and European Union funded programme-SEEFOR.”
He stressed that the the government was intensifying efforts to improve the internally generated revenue profile of the state.
However, the Commissioner said that while the government was reevaluating its strategies to broaden and deepen the tax net “for efficient tax administration, there was no intent to place a tax burden on the citizenry. Ebibai called ‘for patience and understanding from all well-meaning Bayelsa citizens stressing that the government was committed to the fulfillment of its responsibility to its citizens in spite of the financial challenges of the time.