Governor Darius laments dependence on federal allocation

Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba has said the state sources 90 percent revenue from monthly federal allocation.

He said such situation was very unhealthy and directed local government councils in the state to improve on local revenue collection.

Ishaku gave the directives during a twoday training on states fiscal, transparency, accountability and sustainability in Jalingo.

Represented by his deputy, Alhaji Haruna Manu, the governor said there must be serious efforts in local revenue collection to enable councils areas in the state to sustain payment of their staff salaries.

The training was organised by the ministry for budget and planning in collaboration with OXFAM.

Governor Ishaku also expressed concern over the dwindling fortunes of the state revenue generation base and blamed the development on local councils’ failure to improve on revenue collection.

He also stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on the revenue drive of the state adding that it became crucial ``for us to manage the little available resources at our disposal’’.

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’s 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.