Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba state has urged chairmen of local government areas to improve revenue generation towards payment of their staff salaries.
Ishaku gave the advice on Wednesday at a Two-Day training on States Fiscal, Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability (SFTAS) in Jalingo.
The training was organised by the State Ministry for Budget and Planning in Collaboration with OXFAM, for local government chairmen and Heads of Administration of local government areas in the state.
The governor, represented by his deputy Haruna Manu, said that financial transparency would enhance efficiency in local government administration.
He regretted the dwindling fortunes of the state’ revenue generation base.
He said that 90 percent of revenue in the state was being sourced from the monthly Federal allocation.
According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on the revenue drive of the state and it’s is crucial for “us to manage the little available resources at our disposal.
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He, however, noted that the over-dependency on the federation account was not healthy to the economic fortunes of both the state and local government areas.
Ishaku urged participants to take the training with upmost seriousness to enable the state to achieve it’s desired goals.
Earlier, Solomon Elisha, Commissioner for Budget and Planning said that the state has joined the league of transparency and accountability partnership in governance.
According to him, Governor Ishaku has directed that the state government domesticate the Federal government policy on transparency and accountability partnership in governance.
He said that the platform would go along way in mitigating the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy of the state.
Elisha said that the state was organising such training for the first time in the history of the state.
He expressed confidence that local government officials would apply the knowledge acquired in the management of resources at their disposal.
In his Speech, Babangida Joseph, Coordinator, PROSSEL Project Managers, a subsidiary of OXFAM, a European Union based international development partner said that the organisation would be quiet participants with skills that would ensure transparency and social governance.
Joseph commended Taraba government for keying into a global mechanism for transparency and accountability.
